Judgment of the General Court of 25 January 2023 – De Capitani v Council
(Case T-163/21) 1
(Access to documents – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Documents concerning an ongoing legislative procedure – Council working groups – Documents concerning a legislative proposal to amend Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings – Partial refusal to grant access – Action for annulment – Interest in bringing proceedings – Admissibility – First subparagraph of Article 4(3) of Regulation No 1049/2001 – Exception relating to the protection of the decision-making process)
Language of the case: English
Parties
Applicant: Emilio De Capitani (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: O. Brouwer, lawyer, and S. Gallagher, Solicitor)
Defendant: Council of the European Union (represented by: J. Bauerschmidt and K. Pavlaki, acting as Agents)
Interveners in support of the applicant: Kingdom of Belgium (represented by: C. Pochet, L. Van den Broeck and M. Jacobs, acting as Agents), Kingdom of the Netherlands (represented by: M. Bulterman, M.H.S. Gijzen and J. Langer, acting as Agents), Republic of Finland (represented by: M. Pere, acting as Agent), Kingdom of Sweden (represented by: C. Meyer-Seitz and R. Shahsavan Eriksson, acting as Agents)
Re:
By his action under Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks the annulment of Decision SGS 21/000067 of the Council of the European Union of 14 January 2021, by which the Council refused him access to certain documents, coded ‘WK’, exchanged within the Council working groups in the context of legislative procedure 2016/0107 (COD), concerning the amendment of Directive 2013/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings, amending Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Directives 78/660/EEC and 83/349/EEC (OJ 2013 L 182, p.19).
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Annuls Decision SGS 21/000067 of the Council of the European Union of 14 January 2021;
Orders the Council to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by Mr Emilio De Capitani;
Orders the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden to bear their own costs.
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1 OJ C 206, 31.5.2021.