Type: Opinions of the Advocate General

Authority: European Authorities: Euopean Union' Court of Justice

Date: 12/21/2016

Subject: The Advocate General proposes to the Court of Justice to confirm the General Court’s judgment and dismiss the Commission’s appeal. According to Advocate General, Regulation No 1049/2001 obliges the Commission to grant a third party access to the pleadings submitted by a Member State, of which it holds a copy, in a case that has already been closed. However, acknowledging the need for the Court to become more open, the Advocate General suggests to the Court to revisit its institutional arrangements on access to some of the documents relating to its judicial activity. Even if the Court is exempt from the right of access to documents in so far as its judicial tasks are concerned, the Court remains subject to the principle of openness. As regards external judicial documents, such as pleadings submitted by the parties, they may in principle be accessible. The Advocate General suggests that those documents ought to be made available upon request, in both closed as well as, to a more limited extent, in pending cases. However, beyond individual requests for access, the Advocate General also suggests that the pleadings of the parties and the request for a preliminary ruling could be put on the website of the Court as a matter of routine. Internal judicial documents, such as the preliminary report of the reporting judge and the notes for deliberation cannot, according to the Advocate General, be concerned by openness

Parties: Commissione c. Breyer

Classification: Citizens’ rights - Art. 42 Right to access documents of EU institutions

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