Composition
The current members of the panel
The panel is composed of seven persons chosen from among former Members of the Court of Justice and the General Court of the European Union, members of national Supreme Courts and jurists of recognised competence, one of whom is proposed by the European Parliament.
The members of the panel are appointed for a period of four years by the Council, on the initiative of the President of the Court of Justice.
The panel is currently composed of Mr Vassilios Skouris (President of the panel), Ms Maria Berger, Ms Inken Gallner, Ms Barbara Pořízková, Ms Silvana Sciarra, Mr Christophe Soulard and Ms Vesna Tomljenović (members of the panel), who were appointed by Council Decision (EU) 2025/2644 of 16 December 2025 appointing the members of the panel provided for in Article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The term of office of the panel in its current composition runs from 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2030.
[see also the compositions of the panel since 2010]
Vassilios Skouris
Born in 1948; graduated in Law at the Free University of Berlin (1970), Doctor of Laws from the University of Hamburg (1973); Assistant and Curator at the Chair for Civil Procedural Law and General Procedural Law at the University of Hamburg (1972-1977); Professor of Administrative Law at the Democritus University of Thrace (1977-1980); Professor of Public Law at the University of Bielefeld (1980-1982); Full Professor of Public Law at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki (1982-2015); Judge at the Court of Justice of the European Union (1999-2015) and its President (2003-2015); Affiliate Professor at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg (2016-2024); Honorary Bencher of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn; Chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee of FIFA (2016-2024); member of the panel provided for by Article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union since March 2022 and President of that panel since March 2026.
Maria Berger
Born in 1956; Doctor of Laws from the University of Innsbruck; University Assistant at the University of Innsbruck, Public Law and Political Sciences; Federal Ministry of Science, official, Human resources (1984-1994); Federal Chancellery Vienna, official responsible for European Integration (1988-1992); Director at the EFTA Surveillance Authority Geneva/Brussels (1993-1994); Vice-president of the Danube University Krems (1995-1996); Deputy Member of the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002-2003); Member of the European Parliament - Committees: Internal Market, Legal affairs, Civil Liberties (1996-2007); Federal Minister of Justice (2007-2008); Judge at the European Court of Justice (2009-2019); Honorary Professor at the University of Vienna since 2015; member of the panel provided for by Article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union since March 2026.
Inken Gallner
Born in 1964; First State Law Exam (1991), Second State Law Exam and appointment as Judge (1994); Appointment as Judge at the Labour Court (1997); Judge at the Federal Labour Court (2007-2014); Head of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice (2014-2016); Judge at the Federal Labour Court, Sixth Senate (2016-2017); Presiding judge at the Federal Labour Court, Tenth Senate (2017-2022); President of the Federal Labour Court (since 2022); Lecturer for junior lawyer Labour Law working groups (1996-2010); Examiner for the Second State Law Exam in Baden-Württemberg (since 2000) (Labour Law and Civil Law, Committee Chair since mid-2014); Lecturer at the University of Konstanz for German and European Labour Law (since 2016); Lecturer for European and international Labour Law at the Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster (since 2018); Lecturer for European and international Labour Law at the University of Cologne (since 2022); member of the panel provided for by Article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union since March 2026.
Barbara Pořízková
Born in 1968; Doctor of Laws, Masaryk University, Brno (2000). Lawyer at the Financial Directorate in Brno, Department of Indirect Taxes (1993–2001). Head of the litigation group at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specialising in tax disputes (2001–2006). Judge of the Czech Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) since 2006; member of its Grand Chamber since 2013 and President of the Ninth Chamber since 2014. Vice-President of the SAC since October 2018. Recipient of the Lawyer of the Year Award in financial law for 2017, a competition organised by the Czech Bar Association. Author of publications and articles on tax law and the case law of the SAC. Trainee judge at the French Conseil d'État in 2016. Speaker and chair at international panels organised by ACA-Europe and AIHJA. Lecturer for CFE Tax Advisers Europe, the International Fiscal Association, the Czech and Slovak Chambers of Tax Advisers, and the professional public; lecturer in an OECD programme for Ukrainian administrative judges on double taxation treaties and VAT. Member of the Article 255 Committee since March 2022; reappointed for a second mandate.
Silvana Sciarra
Born in 1948; studied at the University of Bari; Harkness Fellow at UCLA and Harvard Law School (1974-1976); taught at the University of Siena, was a Fulbright Fellow at UCLA and visiting professor at several universities (Warwick, Columbia Law School, Cambridge, Stockholm, Lund, UCL, LUISS Rome); held the chair in European Labour and Social Law (1994-2003) at the European University Institute; Full Professor of European Labour and Social Law at the University of Florence (1990-2014, on leave when at the EUI); Doctor Honoris Causa in Law at the University of Stockholm (2006) and the University of Hasselt (2012); Judge at the Italian Constitutional Court, first woman elected by Parliament (since 2014), then President of that Court (2022-2023), now President emerita; awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2017) and Hugo Sinzheimer prize (2015); President of the Italian High School of the Judiciary (2024-2026); member of the panel provided for by Article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union since March 2022.
Christophe Soulard
Born in 1957; Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Reims; Diploma from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, ‘public service’ section; Master’s degree in private law, specialising in ‘judicial careers’, from the Paris 1 University; Judge at the Metz District Court (1985–1989), law clerk at the Court of Justice of the European Union (1985–1992); Director of the European Centre for Judges and Lawyers (1992–1998); Law clerk at the Court of Cassation (1998–2008); First vice-president of the Metz Regional Court (presiding over the first civil chamber and coordinating the civil division) (2008–2012); Judge in the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation (2012–2015); Presiding judge in the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation (2015–2017); Chairman of the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation (2017–2022); First President of the Court of Cassation (France) (since 2022); Associate professor at Robert Schuman University, Strasbourg – teaching European Union law (2003–2009); Associate professor at the University of Lorraine – teaching European Union law (2009–2015); member of the panel provided for by Article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union since March 2026.
Vesna Tomljenović
Born in 1956; Bachelor of Laws at the University of Rijeka (1979), Master of Laws from the University of Zagreb (1984); Doctor of Judicial Science from the University of Zagreb (1996); Assistant/Associate Professor of Private international law and Civil procedure at the University of Rijeka (1980-2005); Professor – Head of the Chair International and European Private Law at the University of Rijeka (2005-2013); Tenured Professor at the University of Rijeka (since 2018); Fulbright visiting professor program, Tulane Law School, USA (January -July 2003); Judge at the General Court of the European Union (2013-2025), President of Chamber in two mandates (2016-2019 and 2019-2021); President of the Croatian Comparative Law Association since 2006; Co-director of the post-graduate specialised program “Law of European Integration” at the University of Rijeka (2009-2013); Head of the Working Group of the Negotiation Team of the Republic of Croatia, responsible for chapter 28 of the acquis “Consumer and health protection” (2005-2013); member of the panel provided for by Article 255 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union since March 2026.