In a judgment delivered on Wednesday 29 October (Case T-590/23), the General Court of the European Union annulled a decision of the Council of the European Union of July 2023 which had refused the applicant, Emilio De Capitani, access to two working documents drawn up by the Secretariat-General of the Council in the context of legislative procedures in the field of asylum management and migration, which were underway at the time of the application for access.
These documents compile the Member States’ comments on the legislative proposals in question.
On the other hand, in accordance with the arguments put forward by the Council and France, the General Court upheld the Council’s decision not to make directly accessible to the public, in its register, legislative documents to which access had been granted following a request made under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
When questioned by Agence Europe, the applicant said that he was not surprised by the General Court’s judgment, but noted that it contradicted the Council’s recent practice of publishing legislative documents from the beginning of 2025. He has reserved the right to appeal against the judgement.
See the ‘De Capitani III’ judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/j75 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)