Judgment of the General Court of 27 February 2015 — Breyer v Commission
(Case T-188/12) 1
(Access to documents — Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 — Written submissions lodged by the Republic of Austria in infringement proceedings before the Court — Refusal of access)
Language of the case: German
Parties
Applicant: Patrick Breyer (Wald-Michelbach, Germany) (represented by: M. Starostik, lawyer)
Defendant: European Commission (represented initially by P. Costa de Oliveira and H. Krämer, then H. Krämer and M. Konstantinidis, Agents, and initially by A. Krämer and R. Van der Hout, then by R. Van der Hout, lawyers)
Interveners in support of the applicant: Republic of Finland (represented by: J. Heliskoski and S. Hartikainen, Agents; and the Kingdom of Sweden (represented initially by A. Falk, C. Meyer-Seitz, C. Stege, S. Johannesson, U. Persson, K. Ahlstrand-Oxhamre and H. Karlsson, then by A. Falk, C. Meyer-Seitz, U. Persson, L. Sedenborg, N. Otte Widgren, E. Karlsson and F. Sjövall, Agents)
Re:
Application for annulment, first, of the Commission decision of 16 March 2012 rejecting a request made by the applicant for access to its legal opinion relating to Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC (OJ 2006 L 105, p. 54), and, second, the Commission decision of 3 April 2012 refusing to grant the applicant complete access to the documents relating to the transposition of Directive 2006/24 by the Republic of Austria and the documents relating to the case which gave rise to the judgment of 29 July 2010 in Commission v Austria, C-189/09, EU:C:2010:455, in so far as, with regard to the latter decision, it concerned access to the written submissions lodged by the Republic of Austria in the course of those proceedings which was refused.
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Annuls the Commission decision of 3 April 2012 refusing to grant Mr Patrick Breyer complete access to the documents relating to the transposition by the Republic of Austria of Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC and to documents relating to case which gave rise to the judgment of 29 July 2010 in Commission v Austria, C-189/09 in so far as it refuses access to the written submissions lodged by the Republic of Austria in that case.
Declares that there is no longer any need to give a ruling on the application for annulment of the Commission decision of 16 March 2012 rejecting a request by Mr Breyer for access to its legal opinion relating to Directive 2006/14.
Orders the Commission, in addition to its own costs, to bear half the costs incurred by Mr Breyer.
Orders the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden to bear their own costs.
________________________1 OJ C 194,30.6.2015.