Thousands of cases are piling up at Greece’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, meaning the backlog has already reached some 30,000, the court’s president, Giorgos Panayioto-poulos, admitted yesterday.

He said that the court fails to hear and rule on up to 2,500 cases a year. The growing number of outstanding cases prompted Panayiotopoulos to call for lower courts to take some of the strain off the Council of State.

“Administrative courts will obviously have to hear some of the cases and prevent them from reaching the Council of State while taking a case to the higher court also has to become more expensive,” he said.

Panayiotopoulos also declared himself against the idea of creating a constitutional court which has recently been proposed.

The Council of State president argued in an interview with the Athens News Agency that such a body would impinge upon the jurisdiction of other courts, which also rule on constitutional matters.