Judgment of the General Court of 24 May 2011 -Batchelor v Commission
(Access to documents - Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Documents exchanged in the course of the assessment of the compatibility with Community law of measures taken with respect to television broadcasting activities - Refusal to grant access - Exception relating to the protection of the decision-making process - Exception relating to the protection of the purpose of inspections, investigations and audits)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicant: Edward William Batchelor (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: F. Young, Solicitor, A. Barav, Barrister, and D. Reymond, lawyer, and subsequently by A. Barav, D. Reymond and F. Carlin, Barrister)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: C. Docksey, C. O'Reilly and P. Costa de Oliveira, Agents, and subsequently by C. O'Reilly and P. Costa de Oliveira)
Intervener in support of the applicant : Kingdom of Denmark (represented by: B. Weis Fogh and S. Juul Jørgensen, Agents)
Intervener in support of the defendant: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (represented by: initially by S. Behzadi-Spencer, L. Seeboruth and I. Rao, Agents, and subsequently by I. Rao, and G. Facenna and T. de la Mare, Barristers)
Re:
APPLICATION for annulment of the decision of the Secretary General of the Commission of 16 May 2008, refusing access to certain documents exchanged in the course of the assessment of the compatibility with Community law of measures adopted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the basis of Article 3a of Council Directive 89/552/EEC of 3 October 1989 on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by Law, Regulation or Administrative Action in Member States concerning the pursuit of television broadcasting activities (OJ 1989 L 298, p. 23), and for annulment of the implied decision refusing that access, deemed to have been taken on 9 April 2008
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Dismisses as inadmissible the action against the implied decision of refusal deemed to have been adopted on 9 April 2008;
Annuls the decision of the Secretary General of the European Commission of 16 May 2008, except in so far as it concerns the information contained in the first two annexes to the letter of 19 February 2007, in respect of which the exception provided for in the first indent of Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents has been invoked;
Orders the Commission to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by Mr Edward William Batchelor;
Orders the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to bear its own costs and to pay the costs incurred by Mr Batchelor as a result of its intervention;
Orders the Kingdom of Denmark to bear its own costs.
____________1 - OJ C 209, 15.8.2008.