A Porto-Born Judge Is Now Second in Command at the EU General Court, Where Companies and Citizens Take Brussels to Court

Maria José Costeira, a Portuguese judge who spent seventeen years at Lisbon's commercial court, was elected on Wednesday as Vice-President of the General Court of the European Union, the Luxembourg court that hears cases brought by people and companies against the EU's own institutions.

The Court of Justice of the European Union announced the result in its press release No 131/26. Her fellow judges elected her for the rest of the current term, which runs from 23 September 2026 to 31 August 2028.

Why the post fell vacant

The election closes a reshuffle at the top of the court that began a week earlier. On 16 September, after the resignation of the Dutch president Marc van der Woude, the judges elected Savvas Papasavvas of Cyprus as President of the General Court. Papasavvas had been Vice-President since 27 September 2019, so his promotion left the second seat empty. Costeira now fills it.

A career in Portuguese courts first

Born in Porto in 1967, Costeira graduated in law from the Universidade de Coimbra (University of Coimbra) in 1991 and did postgraduate work in intellectual property law at the Universidade de Lisboa (University of Lisbon) in 2001. After a year as a trainee lawyer at the Coimbra Bar, she entered the Centro de Estudos Judiciários (National School for the Judiciary) in 1992 and became a judge in 1995.

Her early postings took her to the district courts of Cascais and Ferreira do Zêzere and to Lisbon's minor criminal court. The longest stretch, from 1999 to 2016, was at the Tribunal do Comércio de Lisboa (Lisbon Commercial Court), the court that deals with company disputes and insolvencies. In 2016 she moved briefly to the Tribunal da Relação de Coimbra (Coimbra Court of Appeal).

She was also a visible figure in the profession's own politics. She served as secretary-general of the judges' association from 2012 to 2015 and then as its president until 2016. Since 2003 she has taught intellectual property, competition and commercial law as a visiting professor at the law faculties of the universities of Lisbon, Coimbra, Nova de Lisboa, the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Catholic University of Portugal) and the University of Minho, as well as at the judges' school.

She joined the General Court on 19 September 2016 and presided over one of its chambers from 30 September 2019 to 31 August 2025.

What the General Court does

The Court of Justice of the European Union has two courts. The Court of Justice at the top mainly answers questions of EU law sent by national judges. The General Court below it is where individuals, companies and organisations go to challenge a decision taken by an EU institution or agency. Competition fines, state aid rulings, trade mark refusals and sanctions listings typically end up there.

According to Lusa, the General Court has 54 judges, two from each member state, and it now also answers some of the questions sent in by national courts. Portugal's other judge there is Ricardo da Silva Passos.

For Portuguese companies, the court is not a distant abstraction. Its rulings can confirm or overturn European decisions that land on Portuguese businesses, and the Court of Justice has ruled on Portuguese matters several times this year, from the IMT levy on a company restructuring to industrial emissions rules.

The vice-presidency gives Costeira a hand in how the court runs as well as in what it decides. She takes office immediately and serves until the end of August 2028, when the court's leadership is due to be renewed.