Judgment of the General Court (Ninth Chamber) of 28 October 2020 – Dehousse v Court of Justice of the European Union

(Case T‑857/19)

(Access to documents – Court of Justice of the European Union – Documents held by an institution in the exercise of its administrative functions – Article 266 TFEU – Decision adopted to give effect to a judgment of the General Court – Measures necessary to give effect to a judgment delivered in an action for annulment – Presumption of non-existence or non-possession of documents – Plausible explanations making it possible to determine the reasons for the non-existence or non-possession of documents – Obligation to state reasons – Retention of documentation – Principle of good administration)

1. Action for annulment – Judgment annulling a measure – Effects – Obligation to implement – Scope – Both the operative part and the grounds of the judgment to be taken into account – Duty to reexamine aspects not called in question in the judgment – None (Art. 266(1) TFEU) (see paras 31, 32, 38, 65)

2. Action for annulment – Subject matter – Partial annulment – Condition – Severability of the contested provisions (Art. 263 TFEU) (see para. 36)

3. EU institutions – Right of public access to documents – Decision of the Court of Justice on access to its administrative documents – Refusal of access to a document on the ground that it does not exist or is not held by the institution concerned – Obligation on the institution to draw up and retain documentation relating to its activities – Scope – Obligation to retain documents relating to extraordinary and important institutional meetings – Evidence that a meeting actually took place – Rebuttal of the presumption that the requested documents do not exist (Art. 15(3) TFEU; Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 41; Decision of the Court of Justice of 11 October 2016 on public access to its administrative documents) (see paras 39, 42-44, 58)

4. EU institutions – Right of public access to documents – Decision of the Court of Justice on access to its administrative documents – Refusal of access to a document on the ground that it does not exist or is not held by the institution concerned – Obligation on the institution to draw up and retain documentation relating to its activities – Obligation to retain documents relating to extraordinary and important institutional meetings – Obligation on the institution to provide plausible explanations for the non-existence or non-possession of the documents (Art. 15(3) TFEU; Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Arts 41 and 42; Decision of the Court of Justice of 11 October 2016 on public access to its administrative documents) (see paras 76, 80, 85-88, 97, 98)

5. EU institutions – Right of public access to documents – Decision of the Court of Justice on access to its administrative documents – Refusal of access to a document on the ground that it does not exist or is not held by the institution concerned – Obligation on the institution to provide reasons for refusing access – Obligation on the institution to create a document that does not yet exist – None (Art. 15(3) TFEU; Decision of the Court of Justice of 11 October 2016 on public access to its administrative documents) (see para. 100)

Re:

Application based on Article 263 TFEU and seeking annulment of the decision of the Registrar of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 14 October 2019 concerning a measure giving effect to the judgment of 20 September 2019, Dehousse v Court of Justice of the European Union (T‑433/17, EU:T:2019:632).

Operative part

The Court:

1. Dismisses the action;