By unilaterally seizing documents from the archives of the European Central Bank (ECB), Slovenia has failed to fulfil its obligation to respect the principle of inviolability of the archives of the European Union, the European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday 17 December (Case C-316/19).
In July 2016, without the ECB’s express consent, the Slovenian authorities seized documents and electronic communications from the Governor of the Slovenian Central Bank in the context of an investigation into abuses of power and official functions related to the restructuring of a Slovenian bank.
The Commission brought an action for failure to fulfil obligations against Slovenia on the grounds that: – the unilateral seizure of documents infringes the principle of the inviolability of the archives of the institutions of the Union (Article 343 of the TFEU) ; – the Slovenian authorities have not fulfilled their obligation to cooperate in good faith (Article 4 of the TEU).
The Court upholds that action and finds the alleged infringements in their entirety. It considers that the information and documents exchanged between the ECB and the national central banks within the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) are covered by the concept of ECB archives.
Moreover, even if the Commission has not proved the nature of the documents seized in this particular case, the Court considers that it has been established that those documents necessarily included documents that form part of the ECB’s archives on the grounds of the bulk of the documents seized and the functions exercised by the Governor of Banka Slovenije on the Governing Council of the ECB.
In its view, the Slovenian authorities violated the principle of inviolability of the ECB’s archives, whereas they could have asked the monetary institute to lift the protection afforded to the documents concerned and, in case of refusal, to apply to the EU judge to force him to grant access to its archives.
See the judgment of the Court: http://bit.ly/2WuMus2 (Mathieu Bion)