Judgment of the General Court of 24 January 2024 – Veritas v Commission
(Case T-602/22) 1
(Access to documents – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Document disclosed in the context of an EU Pilot procedure concerning the repayment of VAT – Document originating from a Member State – Refusal to grant access – Prior agreement of the Member State – Exception relating to the protection of court proceedings – Obligation to state reasons)
Language of the case: Italian
Parties
Applicant: Veneziana Energia Risorse Idriche Territorio Ambiente Servizi SpA (Veritas) (Venice, Italy) (represented by: A. Pasqualin, lawyer)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: A.-C. Simon and A. Spina, acting as Agents)
Intervener in support of the defendant: Italian Republic (represented by: G. Palmieri, acting as Agent, and by S. Fiorentino, avvocato dello Stato)
Re:
By its action based on Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks the annulment of Commission Decision C(2022) 5221 final of 15 July 2022 refusing to grant it access to the letter sent on 17 October 2019 from the Italian authorities in EU Pilot procedure 9456/19/TAXUD concerning the repayment of value added tax (VAT) unduly paid on the Italian Environmental Hygiene Tax (tariffa di igiene ambientale, established by Article 49 of decreto legislativo n. 22 (Legislative Decree No 22) of 5 February 1997).
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Dismisses the action;
Orders Veneziana Energia Risorse Idriche Territorio Ambiente Servizi SpA (Veritas) to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission;
Orders the Italian Republic to bear its own costs.
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1 OJ C 432, 14.11.2022.