Action brought on 9 May 2008 - Liga para a protecção da natureza v Commission of the European Communities
(Case T-186/08)
Language of the case: Portuguese
Parties
Applicant: Liga para a protecção da natureza (LPN) (Lisbon, Portugal) (represented by: P. Vinagre e Silva, lawyer)
Defendant: Commission of the European Communities
Form of order sought
Annulment of the decision of the European Commission of 28 February 2008 (referred to in letter of 3 April 2008 sent by the Commission to the Liga para a Protecção da natureza (LPN)) whereby the Commission closed the file on the complaint No 2003/4523 relating to the construction of the Baixo Sabor dam, in so far as that decision wrongly presupposes compliance with the procedural formalities essential for the exercise of LPN's rights to participate in the administrative procedure relating to the 'Baixa Sabor Dam' project, initiated with complaint No 2003/4523 addressed to the European Commission;
Annulment also of the decision whereby the Secretariat-General of the Commission tacitly rejected the confirmatory application submitted by LPN on 19 February 2008 under Article 8 of Regulation No 1049/2001
1Order payment to LPN of token compensation for the infringement of LPN's legitimate expectations that the Commission would act fairly and would comply with procedural rules;
Request of the Commission, under Article 64 et seq. of the Rules of Procedure, that it submit to the Court the said decision to close the file of 28 February 2008, which has been neither notified to the applicant nor published;
Order the Commission to pay the costs.
Pleas in law and main arguments
Decision to close the file
The decision to close the file is invalid since it is based on a clear infringement of the right to present preliminary comments which the Commission itself granted to LPN.
The Commission has refused access to any material in the file which would have enabled LPN to exercise its right to submit preliminary comments, and has not specified the 'internal rules' (which it claims exist) on the basis of which that right was granted by it.
There has also been an infringement of the fundamental principles of good faith, fairness, transparency and proper administration, since the comments cannot even have been analysed before adoption of the final decision to close the file (clearly demonstrated by the fact that less than 24 hours elapsed between the sending of the preliminary comments - 40 pages in Portuguese, with fresh facts and arguments - and the decision to close the file).
Decision of implied rejection
Having regard to Regulations No 1367/2006
2 and No 1049/2001, which confirm unequivocally the right of access to 'internal rules' based on which the right to submit preliminary comments is granted, the silence - first of the Commission, then of the Secretariat General on the confirmatory application - is inexplicable and flatly contravenes the right of access to documents and information laid down by those regulations.