Three of Slovakia's candidates for the post of additional judge of the European Union's General Court (EGC) have been rejected in a row, however, Koen Lenaerts, President of the European Court of Justice, knows five Slovak judges who would succeed without any problem. In an interview with reporter Michal Katuška of the public broadcaster RTVS, Lenaerts also said that the procedure of choosing candidates for this post in Slovakia should be opened to a wider range of judges. However, according to him, candidates had been rejected previously, even before these Slovak cases.
Koen Lenaerts
Máte problém s prehrávaním? Nahláste nám chybu v prehrávači.
...said Lenaerts, adding that the ethical profile of a judge is also an important factor for choosing a suitable candidate. He stressed that he had the best opinion about Ivan Rumana, the most recent Slovak judge who was rejected, as they had worked together in the past. According to him, Rumana is a great judge at the Supreme Court, however he is perhaps more suitable for the Supreme Court in Slovakia than for the court in Luxemburg. Moreover, according to Lenaerts, three consecutive rejections are not an indication of the poor quality of Slovak judges.
In May 2018, Slovakia's third candidate in a row for the post of additional judge of the European Union's General Court (EGC) based in Luxembourg, Ivan Rumana, was rejected by the Council of the EU's consultative committee. In 2016, the bid of former Sieť (Network) MP Radoslav Procházka was turned down due to concerns about his personal integrity. It pointed to suspected attempts to avoid taxation on certain expenditures during his presidential campaign in 2014. Mária Patakyová, who eventually became the ombudswoman, was rejected in Luxembourg even before Procházka due to her insufficient knowledge of French, the working language of the court.
