Judgment of the General Court of 25 September 2014 –Spirlea v Commission
(Case T-306/12) 1
(Access to documents — Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 — Third indent of Article 4(2) — Requests for information addressed by the Commission to Germany in the context of an EU Pilot procedure — Refusal of access — Obligation to carry out a concrete and individual examination — Overriding public interest — Partial access — Duty to state reasons)
Language of the case: German
Parties
Applicants: Darius Nicolai Spirlea and Mihaela Spirlea (Capezzano Pianore, Italy) (represented by: initially, V. Foerster and T. Pahl, and, subsequently, V. Foerster and E. George, lawyers)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: P. Costa de Oliveira, acting as Agent, assisted initially by A. Krämer and R. Van der Hout, and subsequently by R. Van der Hout, lawyers)
Interveners in support of the applicants: Kingdom of Denmark (represented by: initially, V. Pasternak Jørgensen and C. Thorning, and, subsequently, C. Thorning and K. Jørgensen, acting as Agents); Republic of Finland (represented by: S. Hartikainen, acting as Agent); and Kingdom of Sweden (represented by: initially, C. Meyer-Seitz, A. Falk, C. Stege, S. Johannesson, U. Persson, K. Ahlstrand-Oxhamre and H. Karlsson, and, subsequently, C. Meyer-Seitz, A. Falk, U. Persson, L. Swedenborg, C. Hagerman and E. Karlsson, acting as Agents)
Interveners in support of the defendant: Czech Republic (represented by: M. Smolek, T. Müller and D. Hadroušek, acting as Agents); and Kingdom of Spain (represented by: initially, S. Centeno Huerta, and, subsequently, J. García-Valdecasas Dorrego, abogados del Estado)
Re:
Application for annulment of the Commission’s decision of 21 June 2012 refusing to allow the applicants access to two requests for information addressed by the Commission to the Federal Republic of Germany, dated 10 May and 10 October 2011, in the context of EU Pilot procedure No 2070/11/SNCO.
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Dismisses the action;
Orders each party to bear its own costs.
________________________1 OJ C 273, 8.9.2012.