Case T‑480/11

Technion — Israel Institute of Technology
and
Technion Research & Development Foundation Ltd

v

European Commission

(Access to documents — Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 — Documents taken into consideration in the context of a financial audit on the performance of certain research contracts concluded during the course of the sixth framework programme for research, technological development and demonstration activities — Refusal to grant access — Exception relating to the protection of the purpose of inspections, investigations and audits — Obligation to carry out a specific and individual examination — Overriding public interest)

Summary — Judgment of the General Court (First Chamber), 12 May 2015

1.      EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Requirement that the institution should examine the documents specifically and individually — Scope — Exclusion of the obligation — Conditions

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 4)

2.      EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Exceptions to the right of access to documents — Protection of the objectives of inspection, investigation and audit activities — Scope — Application after the closure of those activities

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 4(2))

3.      EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Exceptions to the right of access to documents — Overriding public interest justifying the disclosure of documents — Concept — Individual interest of the applicant — Not included

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Arts 2(1), and 4(2))

4.      EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Exceptions to the right of access to documents — Overriding public interest justifying the disclosure of documents — Distinction from the principle of transparency

(European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 4(2))

1.      See the text of the decision.

(see paras 43-49)

2.      See the text of the decision.

(see para. 65)

3.      The individual interest which may be asserted by a requesting party in obtaining access to a document concerning him personally cannot be taken into account for the purposes of the assessment of the existence of an overriding public interest within the meaning of the final part of Article 4(2) of Regulation No 1049/2001, regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. Moreover, where an applicant invokes the need to have access to the document at issue in order to be able effectively to assert its rights in the context of an inter partes audit procedure, even assuming the existence of a right of access to the said document, such a right cannot be specifically exercised by recourse to the mechanisms for public access to documents established by Regulation No 1049/2001.

(see paras 75, 76)

4.      The interest of the public in obtaining access to a document pursuant to the principle of transparency, which seeks to ensure greater participation by citizens in the decision-making process and to guarantee that the administration enjoys greater legitimacy and is more effective and more accountable to the citizen in a democratic system, does not where the document relates to an administrative procedure have the same weight as where the document relates to a procedure in which the EU institution acts in its capacity as legislator.

(see para. 79)