Luxembourg, 22/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Court of Justice meeting in the Grand Chamber - which is the largest formation with 13 judges just below the exceptional Plenary Chamber of 25 judges - rejected as inadmissible the request made by Spain, which, in the name of the principle of language equality, among other things, challenged the fact that calls for applications for a series of posts within Eurojust were in English and that certain documents to be filled in and submitted by candidates were also in English. The Court rejected the request because, it states, the Eurojust acts contested by Spain are not covered by the provision of the EC Treaty containing the list of acts against which actions for annulment may be brought under that Treaty. It notes that the candidates for the various posts referred to in the contested calls for applications therefore had access to the Court of First Instance.
Advocate-General Poiares Maduro had, in his conclusions, already thought of these legal arguments which, he said, “enabled the Court to adopt a simple solution. (…) However, such a course of action comes up against the considerable difficulty that it is not consonant with the principles which have always guided the case-law of the Court. It would result in depriving a Member State of an opportunity to contest a measure which might undermine a fundamental principle of Union law. It is essential, in my view, that the Court should give decisions on questions which affect the definition of the fundamental legal framework of the Union”. He felt that none of the arguments put forward in favour of inadmissibility was decisive but that “on the contrary, excellent arguments are available to support the idea of admissibility” of Spain's appeal (and the annulment of the call for applications for the post of librarian/archivist because applicants had to use only English.