Luxembourg, 27/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - Senior civil servant from Finland Olli Mattila condemned for spying for Russia has just obtained a decision from the European Court of Justice in his favour. The sixth Chamber of the Court, presided by Claus Sulmann overruled the respective decision of the Council of the EU and the European Commission refusing him access to documents relating to the Union's international relations.
Neither the Council nor the Commission was able to refuse access to these documents as a whole and should have envisaged partial access such as Community texts on public access to Community documents, explained the Court.
Olli Mattila, a senior Finnish civil servant in foreign affairs and son of a former Finnish minister was part of the Finnish delegation taking part in the Council group on Russia and western Europe. In 1999 he demanded a series of documents from the institutions. He asked the Commission for the mixed EU/Russia meeting for 1997 and the annotated draft of the first EU/Russia Cooperation council (1998). He asked the Council for the annotated agenda of the first EU/Ukraine cooperation Council from 1998; the draft EU/USA declaration on energy resources from the Caspian Sea, 1998, as well as the report on the Russia/Latvia meeting with Mr Primakov and the comments from the latter formulated in the confidential framework of the bilateral meeting with the foreign affairs ministers.
After having these demands refused by the institutions, Mr Mattila went to the EU Court of First Instance. The Fifth Chamber presided by Pernilla Lindh from Sweden justified the Council and Commission's position. The Court considered that these documents contained information on the EU's position on relations with Russia and the Ukraine, as well as negotiations with the USA. These were sensitive documents, as Olia Mattila was condemned by the Supreme Court of Finland to a suspended sentence of a year and a half in prison for having communicated the contents of these documents to Russia, which were requested by the Commission and the Council. The Council and the Commission did not have the right to refuse outright access to the documents but it proved impossible for the institutions to give partial access to the documents without divulging the reasoned for their confidentiality, explained the Court.
The civil servant's lawyer explained to European judges that his client needed the documents to write a book and to show that the documents sent to Russia were not confidential.
The code of conduct of 1993 for the Council and the Commission on public access to documents "whose divulging could lead to damaging the protection of the public interest (public security, international relations, monetary stability, legal procedures, inspection and enquiry activities".
Instead of sent the case to the Court of First Instance decided to cancel out the decisions of the Council and the Commission itself. The latter will now have to reconsider the demands made by the Finnish civil servant.