Request for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Germany) lodged on 19 August 2019 — Land Baden-Württemberg v D.R. 

(Case C-619/19)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Bundesverwaltungsgericht

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Land Baden-Württemberg

Defendant: D.R.

Questions referred

Is point (e) of the first subparagraph of Article 4(1) of Directive 2003/4/EC ¹ of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC (the Environmental Information Directive) to be interpreted as meaning that the term ‘internal communications’ covers all communications which do not leave the internal sphere of an authority which is required to provide information?

Is the temporal scope of the protection of ‘internal communications’ under point (e) of the first subparagraph of Article 4(1) of the Environmental Information Directive unlimited?

If Question 2 is answered in the negative: Does the protection of ‘internal communications’ under point (e) of the first subparagraph of Article 4(1) of the Environmental Information Directive apply only until the authority required to provide information has taken a decision or completed any other administrative process?

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¹ OJ 2003, L 41, p. 26.