Schussel Condemns ECJ

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

04 January 2006

In an interview given ahead of his country's assumption of the EU presidency, Austrian Chancellor, Wolfgang Schussel condemned the European Court of Justice for what he suggested was interference in the national affairs of EU member states.

Speaking to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung on December 31, Mr Schussel argued that the ECJ "has in the last couple of years systematically expanded EU competencies, even in areas where there is decidedly no community law".

He went on to add:

"Suddenly, judgements emerge on the role of women in the German federal army, or on access of foreign students to Austrian universities - that is clearly national law."

The Austrian Chancellor revealed that debate on the future role of the ECJ will be one of the Austrian presidency's key priorities during its six month stint at the helm of the European Union.

In reality, most of the ECJ's high-profile rulimgs have been in respect of the single market, which is a clear EU competence, and many of them have had to do with taxation, often to the detriment of Member State budgets, and it may be that this underlies Austria's unhappiness with the Court as much as anything else.

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