Johannes Laitenberger, the head of the European Commission's competition department, has been appointed as one of seven new judges at the European Union's Court of Justice.

Laitenberger, who is German, has been director-general for competition since September 2015. Previously, he was deputy head of the commission's legal service and before that, head of staff to José Manuel Barroso, a former president of the European Commission.

The move to the court, which was widely expected, leaves the position of director-general of competition open for now, although Olivier Guersent, a French official who is in charge of the commission's financial markets department, is expected to be appointed to the post.

In a slew of staff decisions, the commission on Wednesday appointed Ditte Juul Jørgensen, a Danish national, as head of the energy department. She has been head of the private office of EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. Jørgensen joined the commission in 1992 and has spent most of her career working on trade policy. She has been Vestager's chief of staff since 2014.

Sabine Weyand, a German official who has been deputy head of the EU's Brexit negotiating team, has been appointed head of the trade department. Weyand joined the commission in 1994 and has worked in trade and development policy, including as a member of the private office of two commissioners. She was deputy head of the commission's trade department in 2016 before joining the Brexit taskforce, where she was No. 2 to Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator.

Laitenberger was appointed as a judge at the General Court of the EUCJ, which deals with commercial disputes. Six other judges were also appointed to the General Court for a six-year term: José Martín y Pérez de Nanclares (Spain); Rimvydas Norkus (Lithuania); Tamara Perišin (Croatia); Miguel Sampol Pucurull (Spain); Petra Škvařilová-Pelzl (Czech Republic); and Gabriele Steinfatt (Germany).

Iko Nõmm (Estonia) was newly appointed as a judge to the General Court for the period from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2022.

Six judges who are already at the General Court were reappointed for a further six years: Eugène Buttigieg (Malta); Anthony Collins (Ireland); Ramona Frendo (Malta); Colm Mac Eochaidh (Ireland); Jan Passer (Czech Republic); and Vesna Tomljenović (Croatia).