Attorney General for European Court of Justice

The Cabinet has approved the nomination of Attorney General Anthony Borg Barthet to be Malta's first judge in the European Court of Justice, according to sources.

The decision will mean that Dr Borg Barthet will step down as attorney general, a post he has held since 1989.

The government still has to nominate another judge to serve in the European Court of First Instance.

Dr Borg Barthet, 56, joined the civil service as a notary to the government in 1975, acting as chief notary to government on various occasions. He also served as counsel and senior counsel to the republic and was appointed assistant attorney general in 1988. A year later, he was appointed attorney general. He is also an ex-officio member of the commission for the administration of justice.

The Court of Justice - the judicial institution of the EU - currently comprises 15 judges but the number will go up to 25 as each member state has a right to appoint its own judge.

The judges are appointed by common accord of the governments of the member states and hold office for a renewable term of six years.

The judges select one of them to be president of the court for a renewable term of three years.

The Court of Justice may sit in plenary session or in chambers of three or five judges. It sits in plenary session when a member state or a community institution that is a party to the proceedings so requests, or in particularly complex or important cases. Other cases are heard by a chamber.

It is the responsibility of the Court of Justice to ensure that the law is observed in the interpretation and applications of the Treaties establishing the European Communities and of the provisions laid down by the competent EU institutions.

To enable it to carry out that task, the court has wide jurisdiction to hear various types of action and to give preliminary rulings.