Brussels, 13/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 13 November, the General Court of the EU ruled that the European Commission may refuse to make any documents related to an impact assessment accessible to the public before its political proposal has been presented.
In its judgment, the General Court (joined cases T-424/14 and T-425/14) ruled that the Commission was within its rights in 2014, when it denied access to ClientEarth, a non-profit organisation whose aim is the protection of the environment, to two impact assessments connected with EU environmental policy, without having first carried out an individual and specific assessment of the requested documents.
The judges upheld the arguments of the Commission and therefore found that its decision against ClientEarth was justified as its request came at the same time that political proposals and, if applicable, proposed legislative acts were being prepared and drafted. According to the judges, the Commission should firstly be allowed to preserve its 'thinking space', room for manoeuvre and independence, as well as an atmosphere of trust during discussions and, secondly, take precautions against the risk of external pressures which could affect the conduct of the ongoing discussions and negotiations.
With this judgment, the General Court has further extended the possibility for the Commission to invoke reasons of a general nature to refuse access to a document without having to carry out a specific and individual examination of that document. Previously, it was able to do so in the framework of certain procedures (state aid control, control of company merger operations, the pre-litigation stage of an infringement procedure, procedures relating to cartels and “EU Pilot ” procedures), as well as the pleadings lodged by an institution in court proceedings, bids submitted by tenderers in public procurement procedures and correspondence between the national competition authorities and the Commission. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)