Judgment of the General Court of 7 June 2013 – Stichting Corporate Europe Observatory v Commission

(Case T-93/11) ¹

(Access to documents – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Documents concerning the negotiations between the European Union and the Republic of India for the purposes of concluding a free trade agreement – Refusal of access – Exception relating to the protection of the public interest in the field of international relations – Documents which have entered the public domain – Non-imposition of a restriction on disclosure of documents)

Language of the case: English

Parties

Applicant: Stichting Corporate Europe Observatory (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (represented by: S. Crosby, Solicitor, and S. Santoro, lawyer)

Defendant: European Commission (represented by: initially, F. Clotuche-Duvieusart and C. ten Dam, and subsequently F. Clotuche-Duvieusart and I. Zervas, Agents)

Intervener in support of the defendant: Federal Republic of Germany (represented by: T. Henze, J. Möller, K. Petersen and A. Wiedmann, Agents)

Re:

Application for annulment of the decision of the Commission of 6 December 2010 refusing the applicant full access to several documents relating to the negotiations between the European Union and the Republic of India aimed at concluding a free trade agreement, pursuant to the third indent of Article 4(1)(a) 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 (OJ 2001 L 145, p. 43).

Operative part of the judgment

The General Court:

Dismisses the action;

Orders the applicant to bear its own costs and to pay those incurred by the European Commission;

Orders the Federal Republic of Germany to bear its own costs.

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¹ OJ C 113, 9.4.2011.