Judgment of the General Court (Ninth Chamber) of 12 December 2018 –

Deutsche Umwelthilfe v Commission

(Case T‑498/14)

(Access to documents — Documents relating to correspondence between the European Commission and car manufacturers concerning refrigerant R1234yf used in motor vehicles — Documents not included — New plea put forward in the course of the proceedings — Inadmissibility — Measure of inquiry ordering the production of the contested documents in accordance with Article 104 of the Rules of Procedure — Derogation to the principle of adversarial proceedings — Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 — Exception relating to the protection of commercial interests — Public interest in disclosure — Balance — Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 — Article 6(1) — Overriding public interest justifying disclosure of the environmental information or relating to emissions into the environment — General proposition — Partial refusal to grant access — No need to adjudicate)

1. Action for annulment — Judgment annulling a measure — Scope — Partial annulment of an EU legal act — Condition — Severability of the annullable elements from the contested act (see para. 43)

2. Judicial proceedings — Application initiating proceedings — Formal requirements — Identification of the subject matter of the dispute — Brief summary of the pleas in law on which the application is based — General reference to documents annexed to the application — Inadmissibility — Development at the reply stage — Irrelevant (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 76) (see paras 47-49)

3. Judicial proceedings — Introduction of new pleas during the proceedings — Plea raised for the first time at the reply stage — Inadmissibility (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 84) (see para. 50)

4. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Refusal of access to a document on the ground that it does not exist or is not held by the institution concerned — Presumption of non-existence based on the statement to that effect by the institution concerned — Simple presumption rebuttable on the basis of relevant and consistent evidence (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 2(3)) (see paras 61-63)

5. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Duty of the institution to assist the applicant before dismissing his request (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 6(2)) (see para. 64)

6. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Objectives — Principle of the widest possible access — Strict interpretation of the exceptions to the principle of access (Art. 15(3) TFEU; European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Arts 1 and 4) (see paras 87-89)

7. Environment — Aarhus Convention — Regulation No 1367/2006 — Objectives — Environmental information held by the institutions and bodies of the European Union — Widest possible systematic availability and dissemination (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1367/2006, Art. 1) (see para. 90)

8. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Request for access concerning environmental information or information relating to emissions into the environment — Application of Regulation No 1367/2006 as lex specialis in relation to Regulation No 1049/2001 (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 4 and No 1367/2006, Arts 3 and 6) (see paras 91, 92)

9. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Request for access concerning environmental information — Exceptions to the right of access to documents — Regulation No 1367/2006 having special character in relation to Regulation No 1049/2001 — Irrebuttable presumption of a higher public interest requiring disclosure of information concerning emissions into the environment (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 4(2) and No 1367/2006, Art. 6) (see para. 94)

10. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Request for access concerning environmental information — Regulation No 1367/2006 — Information relating to emissions into the environment — Concept — Broad interpretation (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1367/2006, Art. 6(1)) (see paras 95, 96, 109)

11. Environment — Aarhus Convention — Regulation No 1367/2006 — Objectives — More effective public participation in the decision-making process (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1367/2006) (see para. 97)

12. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Request for access concerning environmental information — Regulation No 1367/2006 — Information relating to emissions into the environment — Concept — Sufficiency of a direct link between the information and the relevant emissions — Not permissible (European Parliament and Council Regulations No 1049/2001, Art. 4(2) and No 1367/2006, Art. 2(1)(d)) (see para. 98)

13. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Request for access concerning environmental information — Exceptions to the right of access to documents — Refusal to grant access — Power of the EU judicature to order production of documents in order to verify whether refusal justified — Scope (European Parliament and Council Regulations No 1049/2001, Art. 4 and No 1367/2006) (see para. 108)

14. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Exceptions to the right of access to documents — Strict interpretation and application — Duty to balance relevant interests — Obligation to state reasons — Scope (see paras 119-123)

15. EU institutions — Right of public access to documents — Regulation No 1049/2001 — Exceptions to the right of access to documents — Protection of commercial interests — Obligation to state reasons — Scope — Documents at issue containing elements which may, if disclosed, undermine the commercial interests of a legal person (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1049/2001, Art. 4(2)) (see paras 124, 125)

Re:

Application on the basis of Article 263 TFEU seeking the annulment in part of Commission Decision GESTDEM 2014/547 of 2 June 2014, confirming the refusal to grant access to all the documents relating to correspondence between the European Commission, on the one hand, and the undertakings Honeywell and DuPont or car manufacturers, on the other hand, during the period from September 2011 until April 2012 and from September 2012 until the end of January 2014, concerning refrigerant R1234yf used in motor vehicles.

Operative part

The Court:

1. Declares that there is no longer any need to adjudicate on the application for annulment in part of Commission Decision GESTDEM 2014/547 of 2 June 2014, in so far as it concerns the initially redacted parts of document No 34 which, subsequently, were made public;

2. Dismisses the action as to the remainder;