EU court backs lawyer's Luxembourg language battle

BRUSSELS, Sep 19 (Reuters) Luxembourg had no right to insist that a British barrister take a language test to practise in the Grand Duchy, the European Union's top court ruled today.

Graham Wilson has been a lawyer in Luxembourg since 1994 but in 2003 the local Bar Council refused to register him after he failed to turn up for a language exam. His appeal against the decision ended up in the European Court of Justice.

Luxembourg, with a population of only about half a million, has three official languages -- French, German and Letzeburgesch, a mixture of German and French that is not taught outside the country.

The Duchy was wrong to impose local-language skills as a condition to work there, the court said in a statement. The ruling also renders illegal any similar obstacles that lawyers face in other EU member states.

''Every lawyer has the right to practise on a permanent basis in any (EU) member state under his home-country professional title without a prior test of his language skills,'' the court said.

Luxembourg had also insisted on two other measures that contravened EU rules on allowing lawyers to operate freely across the bloc, the court said.

Luxembourg prohibited European lawyers from working on behalf of companies in Luxembourg, and obliged foreign lawyers to obtain a certificate from their home state every year.

REUTERS DKA BS1621