Judgment of the General Court of 13 March 2024 – ClientEarth and Leino-Sandberg v Council
(Joined Cases T- 682/21 and T 683/21) 1
(Access to documents – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Opinion of the Council’s legal service regarding a proposal by the Commission concerning an amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 and regarding advice issued by the Aarhus Committee – Partial refusal to grant access – Exception relating to the protection of legal advice – Legal opinions that are particularly sensitive in nature or have a particularly wide scope going beyond the context of the legislative process in question – Exception relating to the protection of the decision-making process – Exception relating to the protection of the public interest regarding international relations – Overriding public interest)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicants: ClientEarth AISBL (Ixelles, Belgium), Päivi Leino-Sandberg (Helsinki, Finland) (represented by: O. Brouwer and T. van Helfteren, lawyers, and S. Gallagher, Solicitor)
Defendant: Council of the European Union (represented by: S. Saez Moreno and A. Maceroni, acting as Agents)
Re:
By their actions under Article 263 TFEU, the applicants seek annulment of the decisions contained in the letters with reference numbers SGS 21/2869 and SGS 21/2870 of the Council of the European Union of 9 August 2021, refusing them access in part to document 8721/21.
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Annuls the decisions contained in the letters with references SGS 21/2869 and SGS 21/2870 of the Council of the European Union of 9 August 2021 refusing access in part to Document 8721/21 by ClientEarth AISBL and by Ms Päivi Leino-Sandberg;
Orders the Council to pay the costs.
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1 OJ C 37, 24.1.2022.