§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representation he has made to the Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice's recent legal opinion concerning criticism of the EU.[138684]
§ Mr. VazIn his Opinion in a case brought by Bernard Connelly against the European Commission, the Advocate-General, Ruiz-Javabo Colomer, concluded that the European Court of Justice should dismiss Mr. Connelly's appeal against the decision of the Court of First Instance. The Court of First Instance had found770W previously that Mr. Connelly was in breach of his obligations as a Commission official, according to his terms of employment, and that his dismissal was therefore justified. Neither the Court of First Instance nor the Advocate-General found that it was illegal to criticise the EU, as it has been claimed in some sections of the press.
§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on his policy towards(a) the number of British commissioners, (b) the number of votes allocated to Britain and (c) the number of British judges on the European Court of Justice.[138675]
§ Mr. VazThe Government set out their position on Commission size and vote reweighting in the IGC White Paper that they published in February. I refer the hon. Member to this.
Currently each member state nominates a judge for the ECJ. There are no plans to change this.