Brussels, 11/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, Finnish Green, Heidi Hautala, co-president of the Green Group in the European Parliament, welcomed the stance just taken by Advocate General Philippe Leger urging the Court of Justice to reject the appeal lodged by the Council against the decision of the Court of First Instance that agreed with her in July 1999 in the affair of access to documents. Ms. Hautala especially welcomed the character of "fundamental right" recognised by Mr. Leger for access to documents, as well as the reference to the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights and the principle of proportionality that led the Advocate General to observe that, even in the case of a classified document, the Council must offer partial access to information it contained. "What's important is that the principle of proportionality requires, for each case, making a balance between harmful risks, notably in relations with third countries, and the right of citizens' access to information", Hautala stressed, welcoming the fact that the Advocate General felt that the argument put forward by the Council of an overload of administrative work was incompatible with the respect of a fundamental right.
EUROPE recalls that Mr Léger invites the Court to conform with the decision by the Court of First Instance on 19 July 1999, which had annulled the decision through which the Council had refused to provide Mrs Hautala with access to a report on conventional arms exports. During this procedure, Denmark, Sweden, France, Finland and the United Kingdom supported Mrs Hautala. On the conclusions from Mr Léger, see EUROPE of 11 July, p.12.