Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Marc Jaeger, the new president of the main court of appeal for European Union antitrust decisions, said tackling a backlog of cases that last an average of 2 1/2 years is his top priority.

``Reduce procedures as much as possible while maintaining quality,'' is the target for the next three years, Jaeger said. The 53-year-old was elected president on Sept. 17, the same day the court overturned an appeal by Microsoft Corp. Jaeger takes over from Bo Vesterdorf, who retired after leading the court for nine years.

``The challenge isn't easy,'' Jaeger said in an Oct. 5 interview in his office at the European Court of First Instance, the EU's second-highest court. He's the first Luxembourg national to lead the tribunal, which is based in the country.

The court, which started in 1989, is struggling to grapple with the increasing size of the EU. As of Oct. 9, the court had 1,056 cases pending, of which 333 were competition-related and 260 concerned trademarks. The tribunal last year took 19 months to throw out the European Commission's approval of the merger of Sony Corp.'s and Bertelsmann AG's music units, forcing the regulator to reexamine the deal and clear it again.

Less than four weeks into the job, Jaeger has taken his first step to address the delays: the tribunal's 27 judges will be spread among eight chambers, instead of five.

``I see that as a very positive sign,'' said Jean-Francois Bellis, one of the lawyers representing Microsoft at the court. ``If you have a case that takes four or five years, you risk getting a ruling that won't be of any use anymore.''

`Impossible'

``The logic which is followed in making decisions in a business environment isn't the same logic with which decisions are taken in judicial proceedings,'' Jaeger said in the interview, conducted in Luxembourgish and French. `` If the business captain wants a judicial decision in 15 days, that's impossible.''

Creating a separate competition court to help push merger and cartel appeals faster through the process isn't an option because it wouldn't significantly cut procedures, Jaeger said.

The judge, dressed in a grey suit and pink tie, said there are other areas, such as trademarks, that could be moved to a separate court more easily.

``But when it comes to mergers and competition law, then the answer is no. Why? Because these are extremely technical cases, which in my opinion have their rightful place here.''

Merger Specialists

The Court of First Instance was originally created to deal with antitrust cases and relieve the European Court of Justice, the EU's top court. Over the years it has developed expertise in this field and many of its members are now specialists, he said.

Jaeger himself ``seems to be impressively well-organized and efficient in his handling of complex cases,'' said Denis Waelbroeck, a partner at law firm Ashurst, who represented Tetra Laval SA in a successful bid to overturn an EU veto of its 1.7 billion-euro ($2.4 billion) bid for Sidel SA.

He was one of the 13 judges who upheld most of the EU's antitrust decision to fine Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, a record 497 million euros ($697 million) and force it to disclose proprietary data and strip music and video software from a version of Windows.

Jaeger joined the court in 1996, 10 years after starting as a legal secretary with the European Court of Justice. He previously served as a judge at the Luxembourg District Court and taught at the Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg.

He wouldn't comment about whether the Microsoft decision will embolden the EU regulator to pursue complaints against other U.S. companies, such as Qualcomm Inc. or Google Inc.

Impressions that the court is playing an activist role ``don't correspond to the reality,'' he said. ``Competition policy is made elsewhere, it doesn't happen here.''

``All we do is control the quality of the decisions by the EU institutions. That's it.'' Until the next election in August 2010 Jaeger wants ``to lose as little time as possible, be as efficient as possible and not waste energy.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 10, 2007 18:13 EDT