Request for a preliminary ruling from the Visoki upravni sud Republike Hrvatske (Croatia) lodged on 26 May 2023 – HP – Hrvatska pošta d.d v Povjerenik za informiranje

(Case C-336/23, HP – Hrvatska pošta)

Language of the case: Croatian

Referring court

Visoki upravni sud Republike Hrvatske

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: HP – Hrvatska pošta d.d.

Defendant: Povjerenik za informiranje

Questions referred

Is the term ‘re-use of information’ for the purposes of Article 2(11) of Directive (EU) 2019/1024 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on open data and the re-use of public sector information ([OJ 2019] L 172, [p. 56]) (‘the Directive’) to be understood as meaning access to any information which a public sector body/public undertaking has produced or holds, and which a user (natural or legal person) requests from a public sector body for the first time?

Can a request for information which a public sector body/public undertaking has produced or which it holds, and which was generated within the scope of its activities or in connection with its organisation and work, be regarded as a request for information to which the provisions of the Directive apply, that is to say, do the provisions of that directive apply to all requests for information held by public sector bodies?

Are the entities obliged to provide information, listed in Article 2 of the Directive, only those public sector bodies to which requests for re-use of information are made, or do the new definitions concern all public sector bodies and all information held by those bodies, that is to say, are the entities listed in Article 2 of the Directive obliged to provide information they have produced or hold, or are the entities listed in Article 2 of the Directive considered to be obliged to provide information only where the information is re-used?

Can the exceptions to the obligation to make information available under Article 1(2) of the Directive be regarded as exceptions by virtue of which public sector bodies may refuse to provide information produced or held by them, or are they exceptions which apply only where requests have been made to the public sector bodies for re-use of the information?

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