ECJ Judgment – Access to documents – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Request relating to a very large number of documents – Total refusal of access – Obligation to carry out a concrete, individual examination – Exceptions
The claimant a consumer had requested production of documents held by the respondent. It wanted the documents to support a claim against a bank, where the Commission had itself carried out an investigation. Access was refused by the Commission saying that the burden of producing the documents was too great.
Held: If an institution wished to deny such a request, the burden of establishing good reasons lay on the institution, which should demonstrate that it had considered all conceivable options, and that each such option would impose an unreasonable burden. Here, the bundle would amount to some47,000, but the commission had not considered the particular documents, only issued a general ban, and had not discharged the onus of showing why access should be refused. The decision was set aside.
Europa Procedure – Intervention – Application for leave to intervene in support of the form of order sought by one of the parties – Application containing additional arguments altering the framework of the dispute – Inadmissibility of those arguments
(Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 40, fourth para.; Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance, Art. 116(3))
European Communities – Institutions – Right of public access to documents – Regulation No 1049/2001 – Obligation on the institution to carry out a concrete, individual examination of the documents – Scope – Exclusion of the obligation – Conditions
(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 4)
European Communities – Institutions – Right of public access to documents – Regulation No 1049/2001 – Obligation on the institution to carry out a concrete, individual examination of the documents – Failure to perform the obligation – Breach of principle of proportionality – Examination proving particularly onerous and inappropriate – Derogation from the obligation to examine – Burden of proof on the institution – Obligation on the institution to consult with the applicant
(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 4)
Citations:
T-2/03, [2005] EUECJ T-2/03, Times 20-May-2005
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Statutes:
European, Administrative, Information
Updated: 29 June 2022; Ref: scu.224464
