Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:392
Date: 2001-07-10
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Provisions governing the Institutions;Access to documents
Procedure: Action for annulment;Appeal - unfounded
Origin: Finland

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Council — Right of public access to Council documents — Decision 93/731 — 
Aims — Principle of the widest possible access — Strict interpretation of exceptions 
to the principle of access 
(Council Decision 93/731) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-353/99 P 
2. Council — Right of public access to Council documents — Decision 93/731 — 
Exceptions to the principle of access to documents — Refusal of access to a document 
without first examining the possibility of partial access to data not covered by the 
exceptions — Breach of the principle of proportionality 
(Council Decision 93/731, Art. 4(1)) 
1. The aim pursued by Decision 93/731 
on public access to Council documents, 
as well as being to ensure the internal 
operation of the Council in conformity 
with the interests of good administra­
tion, is to provide the public with the 
widest possible access to documents 
held by the Council, so that any 
exception to that right of access must 
be interpreted and applied strictly. 
(see para. 25) 
2. The principle of proportionality 
requires that derogations remain 
within the limits of what is appropriate 
and necessary for achieving the aim in 
view. 
In the absence of any reason to show 
why an institution should be able to 
keep secret the items of information in 
a document which are not covered by 
the exceptions laid down in Arti­
cle 4(1) of Decision 93/731, a refusal 
to grant partial access would be mani­
festly disproportionate for ensuring the 
confidentiality of the items of informa­
tion covered by one of those excep­
tions. The aim pursued by the Council 
in refusing access to the contested 
report could be achieved even if the 
Council did no more than remove, after 
examination, the passages in the report 
which might harm international rela­
tions. 
(see paras 28-29) 
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