Luxembourg, 06/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - In the view of the President of the European Court of Justice Vassilios Skouris, the request by the French Council of State concerning the compatibility of French rules on company staff numbers with European law is not a priority. The Council of State had asked its case to be treated under the so-called accelerated procedure, allowing it to jump the queue over other cases. Vassilios Skouris indicates that the fact that this rule, which has been challenged by Unions, is only valid until 31 December 2007, is not sufficient to produce the "extraordinary urgency" required by the rules of procedure of the Court for it to hear a case as a priority.
The five largest French trade unions- CGT, CFDT, CGC, CFTC, CGT-FO - have attacked the Prime Minister and the employment Minister over rule 2005-892, which provides for an employee taken on as of 22 June 2005 and aged less than 26 years not to be counted on the total staff levels of a company, irrespective of the nature of the contract between the employee and that company. According to the unions, this allows employers to dispense with certain obligations stemming from two directives, of 1998 and 2002 respectively, on collective redundancies and employer consultation.
Before taking position, the Council of State called on the Court to judge, as a matter of urgency, whether this rule was compatible with European law. Given President Skouris's refusal, the Council of State will have to wait its turn (its case is the 385th brought before the Court since the beginning of the year).