In its judgment of 26 February 2019, the Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) annulled the decision of the Latvian authorities to suspend the governor of its central bank (joined cases C-202/18 and C-238/18).
Last year, Latvia suspended the governor of its central bank following a criminal investigation into a bribe accepted by said governor. Both the governor and the European Central Bank (ECB), where the governor is member of the Governing Council, challenged the suspension before the Court of Justice based on Article 14.2 of the Statute of the ECB and ESCB. This provision confers jurisdiction on the Court of Justice to hear cases involving decisions to relieve a central bank governor from office. It was the first time the Court of Justice was asked to rule on the basis of this provision.
In its ruling, the Court of Justice found, first of all, that the abovementioned provision also applies to temporary prohibitions on performing the duties of central bank governor. Subsequently, it refuted Latvia’s arguments that it lacks jurisdiction to review national law enforcement decisions and that asserting jurisdiction would significantly impact criminal investigations. In this respect, it particularly stressed that the right to contest this kind of decision is intended to ensure that central bank governors can carry out their tasks within the EU institutions independently without political influence from national authorities.
Moreover, although the ECB requested a declaratory judgment, the Court of Justice ruled that the legal remedy in question should be the annulment of the suspension. It argued that the enforcement of a declaratory judgement would be dependent on national authorities and therefore would not have the intended effect. This ruling is unique as the Court of Justice does not in principle have jurisdiction to annul national measures.
The suspension was finally annulled because Latvia had not adduced sufficient indications of the serious misconduct imputed to the governor.
Please contact Pierre de Bandt or Raluca Gherghinaru for further information on this case and/or for general legal advice relating to EU litigation.