Action brought on 19 November 2009 - Stelzer v Commission
(Case T-467/09)
Language of the case: German
Parties
Applicant: Dierk Stelzer (Berlin, Germany) (represented by: F. Weiland, lawyer)
Defendant: Commission of the European Communities
Form of order sought
annul the decisions in the form of refusals by the Directorate-General Environment of the Commission of 6 August 2009 and the Secretariat-General of the Commission of 29 October 2009 (correct date must be 29 September 2009);
order the defendant to pay the applicant's costs incurred out of court.
Pleas in law and main arguments
The applicant contests in particular the Commission decision dated 29 October 2009, by which his second application for inspection of the compliance study on the transposition of Directive 2003/35/EC
1 was partially rejected.
In support of its action the applicant claims that the reasons invoked by the defendant for the rejection of access to the document applied for, based on protection of the purpose of investigations (Article 4(2), third indent, of Regulation [EC] No 1049/2001
2) and on protection of the decision-making process (Article 4(3) of Regulation No 1049/2001) were erroneous. The applicant also claims that the request for partial access to the document applied for under Article 4(6) of Regulation No 1049/2001 was wrongly rejected. Furthermore there is an overwhelming public interest in the dissemination of the study in question. Finally the applicant complains that the defendant failed to comply with the obligation to state reasons.