Court of Justice 26 March 2026, C-611/24 (Opinion of Advocate General Emiliou delivered on 26 March 2026.)

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In Case C-611/24, Advocate General Emiliou opines that Article 14.2 of the Statute of the ESCB and of the ECB applies, as a matter of EU law, exclusively to governors of national central banks, but does not preclude national legislation extending the same removability test—permitting early dismissal only where the person no longer fulfils the conditions required for performance of duties or has been guilty of serious misconduct—to deputy governors and other members of a national central bank's decision-making body. The AG further opines that the principle of independence enshrined in Article 130 TFEU and Article 7 of the Statute does not preclude national obligations requiring such members to declare shareholdings and participations in non-profit entities to a competent anti-corruption authority, nor does it preclude national prohibitions on unauthorised parallel activities, provided the applicable conditions and time limits are sufficiently clear and a case-by-case conflict-of-interest assessment is available where no abstract prohibition applies. Finally, the AG opines that EU law not only permits but requires the authority competent to establish grounds for dismissal to conduct an autonomous assessment of whether serious misconduct exists, without automaticity derived from findings of another body, and subject to effective judicial review in accordance with Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.AI