The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has rejected all three of Lithuania's candidates for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), with a new national selection process planned to be launched in October, LNK News reported on Sunday.
The three candidates selected by the Lithuanian Justice Ministry were Lyra Jakulevičienė of, a professor at Mykolas Romeris University, Aistė Račkauskaitė-Burneikienė, a judge of Vilnius City District Court, and Gediminas Sagatys, a judge of the Lithuanian Supreme Court.
“We have been informed about a rejection of the list at this stage,” Justice Minister Ewelina Dobrowolska said.
She said there were doubts about one candidate, but did not disclose why all three nominations for the post of ECHR judge had been rejected, noting that this information was not public.
According to information available to LNK, the candidates were rejected due to an inadequate national selection procedure.
However, according to unofficial reports, PACE might have found the educational background of the minister, who heads the task group selecting the final candidates, to be a problem.
According to Dobrowolska, the selection process, where the three candidates had to be chosen from only six applicants, was not competitive or public enough.
The minister says the selection procedure will be changed and a new call for applications will be launched next month.
The term of office of Egidijus Kūris, Lithuania’s current ECHR judge, is set to end on October 31.
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