Andria Buhagiar Appointed Judge at the General Court of the European Union

The General Court is the EU's tribunal of first instance for cases brought by member states, institutions, companies and individuals against EU bodies — the court that hears challenges to Commission decisions on competition, state aid and trade, among other things. Buhagiar moves there from a role at the centre of Malta's own legal defence work, where the State Advocate's office represents the government in proceedings before domestic and international courts.

The appointment is made by common accord of the governments of EU member states, meaning Malta's government nominated Buhagiar and the other twenty-six agreed. What specific cases or legal areas Buhagiar will handle, and who will fill the deputy role she leaves behind, the announcement does not say. The State Advocate's office is not large; a vacancy at that level is not a small operational gap.

What the appointment means for the office's day-to-day capacity, and how the gap will be filled, are questions the announcement leaves entirely open.

About the writer

Gabriel Fenech Senior Correspondent, Malta

Gabriel Fenech has covered Malta for four decades. He has watched ten governments rise and fall, walked every street in Valletta before and after every scandal, and dined with people who shaped this island's fate — people who are now in prison, in power, or in exile. He quotes Márquez without trying. He is the most curious person in any room and the quietest about it. Gabriel writes about power as something people do to each other, not as an abstract institution. His patience is often mistaken for forgiveness. There is something he has never written. He never will.

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