EU Court enforces transparency obligations in Commission administrative procedures

The European Court of Justice ruled that the European Commission cannot use the exception for protecting its decision-making process to withhold all documents related to an administrative procedure, particularly when those documents contain environmental information. In a case involving Saint-Gobain and free emission allowances under the EU emissions trading scheme, the Court found that only documents revealing the actual deliberations of decision-makers can be kept secret, while other documents must be disclosed. The ruling emphasizes a strict interpretation of transparency exceptions in line with the Aarhus Convention.

• The European Court of Justice determined that the exception to transparency obligations intended to protect the decision-making process does not cover the entire administrative procedure; only documents that specifically reveal the deliberations of decision-makers may be withheld.
• In the specific case of Saint-Gobain, the Commission had refused to disclose information provided by the German Government regarding installations used to calculate free emission allowances for 2013-2020 under the emissions trading scheme (Directive 2003/87), arguing that disclosure would undermine its decision-making process.
• The Court rejected the argument that public scrutiny or the possibility of interested parties influencing a procedure constitutes a sufficient risk to justify withholding documents, noting that the Commission's claim that disclosure would jeopardize time limits was not credible.
• The ruling reinforces that Regulation 1049/2001 applies to all documents held by an institution across all areas of Union activity, regardless of whether the activity is legislative or administrative.

APA

Kemp, M. (2017). EU Court enforces transparency obligations in Commission administrative procedures. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/eu-court-enforces-transparency-obligations-in-commission-administrative-procedures/

Chicago

Kemp, Maximillian. EU Court enforces transparency obligations in Commission administrative procedures. ClientEarth, 2017. https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/eu-court-enforces-transparency-obligations-in-commission-administrative-procedures/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kemp |first1=Maximillian |title=EU Court enforces transparency obligations in Commission administrative procedures |publisher=ClientEarth |date=27 October 2017 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/eu-court-enforces-transparency-obligations-in-commission-administrative-procedures/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kemp2017court, author = {Kemp, Maximillian}, title = {{EU Court enforces transparency obligations in Commission administrative procedures}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2017}, month = oct, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/latest/news/eu-court-enforces-transparency-obligations-in-commission-administrative-procedures/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }