Information;Order — ECLI:EU:T:2023:190
Date: 2023-03-28
Language of the case: Italian
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Subject matter: Provisions governing the Institutions;Access to documents
Procedure: Action for annulment - inadmissible;Application to intervene - decision unnecessary
Origin: Italy

summary communication issued by the European Commission itself. Third plea in law, alleging non-compliance with the obligation to state reasons for the measures adopted by the European institutions. It is submitted in that regard that by examining the reasons for the measures, all the interested parties can be placed in a position to know and understand the methods by which the institutions implement the Treaty, since the obligation to state reasons has both a review function and a participatory function, in so far as in making the assessments made prior to the adoption of the institutions’ measures clearly understandable, it contributes to alleviating the democratic deficit often levelled against the European Union. The principles regarding the statement of reasons have not been complied with, since the Commission submitted only wholly generic and formulaic claims for the reasons for which the disclosure of the supplementary letter of formal notice of 15 July 2022 would undermine the aforementioned “climate of trust”; it replied with a form in which few and scarce claims were inserted which would allow the applicant and the Court a genuine review of the legality of reasons for the refusal, that refusal being insufficiently justified; that is particularly true as regards the reasons that would have prevented at least a partial disclosure of the document, already to some extent disseminated with the infringement package of 15 July 2022, albeit not in such a way as to enable understanding of the content and the reasons for the additional objections made in relation to Italy. The contested refusal of access does not clearly indicate the grounds on which it is founded, their legal basis, the factual basis and the way in which the different relevant interests have been taken into consideration, because the refusal affects the exercise of rights pursuant to Articles 17 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, with the consequence that since the measure adopted imposes the limitation of a right recognised to the applicant by the Treaty, consisting in a restriction of such rights, the reasons must be somewhat stricter, more precise and accurate in order that the choices made are clearly understandable. ____________ 1 OJ 2001 L 145, p. 43.