5.3. Removal and judicial independence

In G 2301/15 the Enlarged Board stated that removing an irksome judge from office could be used to indirectly influence decisions. It was crucial to judicial independence that judges could not be removed without special institutional safeguards. The requirement that a board member may only exceptionally be removed from office on a proposal from the Enlarged Board intended to make sure that unsubstantiated or groundless allegations could not be used as pretext for getting rid of an irksome judge.

In G 2301/16 the Enlarged Board concluded that the EPO President's procedurally irregular intervention in the form of a position statement was incompatible with the Enlarged Board's judicial independence.