MOSCOW, April 4 - RAPSI, Sergei Feklyunin. The president of the European Court of Justice, Vassilios Skouris, said on Wednesday that the judicial protection of citizens is the top priority for cooperation with the Russian Supreme Court during a meeting with its presidium members.

"We hope that your visit will pave the way for long-term cooperation between our instances," Vassilios Skouris said. He added that the judicial protection of citizens must become the central topic of cooperation.

Skouris said the European Court of Justice cooperates with the judicial bodies of the EU member states, as well as other judicial bodies - international and judicial bodies of third states.

Skouris added that the European court's chief tasks are to follow the use and interpretation of the EU legislation and control the correspondence of national laws with the EU constituent documents.

Meanwhile, Russian Supreme Commercial Court Chairman Anton Ivanov said the competence of the two courts regarding their state institutions is largely the same.

He underscored that the Supreme Commercial Court wants to form legal positions to be used by lower courts rather than resolving only concrete cases.

The European Court of Justice is the EU's supreme judicial instance. The EU Court of Justice is the EU judiciary body. The court holds hearings in Luxemburg. It has three sub-courts -- the European Court of Justice, the General Court (first instance) and the Civil Service Tribunal.