Case C-524/09

Ville de Lyon

v

Caisse des dépôts et consignations

(Reference for a preliminary ruling from the

tribunal administratif de Paris)

(Preliminary rulings – Aarhus Convention – Directive 2003/4/EC – Public access to information in environmental matters – Directive 2003/87/EC – Scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading – Regulation (EC) No 2216/2004 – Standardised, secured system of registries – Access to data on greenhouse gas emission allowance trading – Refusal to report – Central administrator – Administrators of national registries – Confidential nature of the data held in the registries – Exceptions)

Summary of the Judgment

1.        Environment – Atmospheric pollution – Directive 2003/87 – Scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading – Integrated system of registries in the European Union and the Member States – Data on allowance trading – Reporting and confidentiality

(Commission Regulation No 2216/2004; European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/87, Art. 19, as amended by Directive 2004/101)

2.        Environment – Atmospheric pollution – Directive 2003/87 – Scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading – Integrated system of registries in the European Union and the Member States – Data on allowance trading – Confidentiality of those data – Reporting to public

(Commission Regulation No 2216/2004, Arts 9, 10, and Annex XVI, paragraphs 11 and 12; European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/87, as amended by Directive 2004/101)

3.        Environment – Atmospheric pollution – Directive 2003/87 – Scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading – Integrated system of registries in the European Union and the Member States – Data on allowance trading – Confidentiality of those data – Reporting to public

(Commission Regulation No 2216/2004, Annex XVI, paragraph 12; European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/87, as amended by Directive 2004/101)

1.        The reporting of trading data relating to the names of holders of the transferring accounts and acquiring accounts of the emission allowances, allowances or Kyoto units involved in those transactions and the date and time of those transactions, comes exclusively under the specific rules governing public reporting and confidentiality contained in Directive 2003/87 establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community, in the version resulting from Directive 2004/101, and in Regulation No 2216/2004 for a standardised and secured system of registries pursuant to Directive 2003/87 and Decision No 280/2004.

Those are data relating to transferred allowances, an accurate accounting of which is to be kept by the Member States in their respective national registries, of which the technical features and rules relating to the keeping, reporting and confidentiality of the information contained in those registries are determined by Regulation No 2216/2004. They accordingly come within the ambit of Article 19 of Directive 2003/87 and not that of Article 17. Since Article 19 of Directive 2003/87 does not refer to Directive 2003/4 in the same way as in Article 17, it must be held that the Union legislature did not intend to make requests concerning trading data subject to the general provisions of Directive 2003/4 but that, on the contrary, it sought to introduce, in respect of those data, a specific, exhaustive scheme for their public reporting and confidentiality.

(see paras 39-41, operative part 1)

2.        Trading data relating to the names of holders of the transferring accounts and acquiring accounts of the emission allowances, allowances or Kyoto units involved in those transactions and the date and time of those transactions, requested by a public authority wishing to renegotiate an agreement on public service delegation, are confidential data within the meaning of Regulation No 2216/2004 for a standardised and secured system of registries pursuant to Directive 2003/87 and Decision No 280/2004. Under Articles 9 and 10 of that regulation, read in conjunction with paragraphs 11 and 12 of Annex XVI to that regulation, such data, if the holders of the accounts concerned have not previously given their consent, may be freely consulted by the general public only in the public area of the Community independent transaction log’s website from 15 January onwards of the fifth year (X+5) following the year (X) of completion of the transactions relating to transfers of emission allowances.

(see paras 52-53, operative part 2)

3.        Although, for the purposes of implementation of Regulation No 2216/2004 for a standardised and secured system of registries pursuant to Directive 2003/87 and Decision No 280/2004, it is the Central Administrator who has sole competence to report to the general public the data referred to in paragraph 12 of Annex XVI to that regulation, the administrator of the national registry who has received a request for reporting of such trading data must independently reject that request inasmuch as, if the holders of the accounts concerned have not previously given their consent, that administrator is required to guarantee the confidentiality of the data until they have become legally reportable to the general public by the Central Administrator.

(see para. 59, operative part 3)