Judgment of the General Court of 20 March 2024 – Acampora and Others v Commission
(Case T-261/23) 1
(Access to documents – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Documents concerning infringement proceedings brought by the Commission against Italy – Refusal of access – Exception concerning the protection of the purpose of inspections, investigations and audits – Obligation to state reasons – General presumption of confidentiality – Overriding public interest)
Language of the case: Italian
Parties
Applicants: Roberto Acampora (Naples, Italy) and the 171 other applicants whose names appear in the annex to the judgment (represented by: E. Iorio, lawyer)
Defendant: European Commission (represented by: M. Burón Pérez and A. Spina, Agents)
Re:
By their action based on Article 263 TFEU, the applicants seek the annulment of Commission Decision C(2023) 3436 of 21 May 2023, explicitly rejecting their request for access (GestDem 2023/0263) to the supplementary letter of formal notice of 15 July 2022 to the Italian Republic under infringement proceedings 2016/4081, relating to the compatibility with EU law of the national legislation governing the service provided by magistrati onorari (honorary judges), and to the Italian Republic’s response of 15 December 2022.
Operative part of the judgment
The Court:
Declares that there is no longer any need to rule on the form of order seeking annulment of the implied decision of the European Commission of 15 March 2023 rejecting the confirmatory request for access;
Dismisses the action as inadmissible inasmuch as it seeks the annulment of the Commission decision of 27 January 2023 rejecting the initial request for access;
Dismisses the action as to the remainder;
Orders the Commission to bear its own costs and to pay those of Mr Roberto Acampora and the other applicants whose names appear in the annex and which relate to the originating application and to the application for a declaration that there is no need to adjudicate;
Orders Mr Acampora and the other applicants whose names appear in the annex to bear their own costs and to pay those of the Commission relating to the application to modify the application.
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1 OJ C 261, 24.7.2023.