Judgment of the Court (Full Court) of 30 March 2004 inCase C-167/02 P: WilliRothley and Others v EuropeanParliament (‘Appeal— Measure of the Parliament concerning the terms and conditions for internalinvestigations in relation to the prevention of fraud — Action for annulment— Admissibility — Independence and immunity of Members of the Parliament —Confidentiality connected with the work of Parliamentary committees of inquiry— European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) — Investigative powers’)
Date: 2004-04-30
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: EU office or agency, General Court (EU), Member of the European Parliament, action for annulment (EU), fraud, rules of procedure

30.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 106/11

JUDGMENT OF THE COURT

(Full Court)

of 30 March 2004

in Case C-167/02 P: Willi Rothley and Others v European
Parliament (1)

(‘Appeal — Measure of the Parliament concerning the terms
and conditions for internal investigations in relation to the
prevention of fraud — Action for annulment — Admissi-
bility — Independence and immunity of Members of the
Parliament — Confidentiality connected with the work of
Parliamentary committees of inquiry — European Anti-Fraud
Office (OLAF) — Investigative powers’)

(2004/C 106/16)

(Language of the case: German)

(Provisional translation; the definitive translation will be published in
the European Court Reports)

Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe

In Case C-167/02 P: appeal by Willi Rothley, residing in
Rockenhausen (Germany), Marco Pannella, residing in Rome
(Italy), Marco Cappato, residing in Milan (Italy), Gianfranco
Dell'Alba,
residing in Rome, Benedetto Della Vedova,
residing in Milan, Olivier Dupuis, residing in Rome, Klaus-
Heiner Lehne, residing in Düsseldorf (Germany), Johannes
Voggenhuber, residing in Vienna (Austria), Christian von
Boetticher, residing in Pinneberg (Germany), Emma Bonino,
residing in Rome, Elmar Brok, residing in Bielefeld (Germany),
Renato Brunetta, residing in Rome, Udo Bullmann, residing
in Gießen (Germany), Michl Ebner, residing in Bolzano (Italy),
Raina A. Mercedes Echerer, residing in Vienna, Markus
Ferber, residing in Bobingen (Germany), Francesco Fiori,
residing in Voghera (Italy), Evelyne Gebhardt, residing in
Mulfingen (Germany), Norbert Glante, residing in Werder/
(Germany), Alfred Gomolka, residing in Greifswald
Havel
(Germany),
zu Baringdorf,
residing in Spenge (Germany), Lissy Gröner, residing in Neus-
tadt (Germany), Ruth Hieronymi, residing in Bonn (Germany),
Magdalene Hoff, residing in Hagen (Germany), Georg Jarzem-
bowski, residing in Hamburg (Germany), Karin Jöns, residing
in Bremen (Germany), Karin Junker, residing in Düsseldorf,
Othmar Karas, residing in Vienna, Margot Keßler, residing in
Kehmstedt (Germany), Heinz Kindermann, residing in Stras-
burg (Germany), Karsten Knolle, residing in Quedlinburg
in Weimar
(Germany), Dieter-Lebrecht Koch,
(Germany), Christoph Konrad,
Bochum
in
(Germany), Constanze Krehl, residing in Leipzig (Germany),
in Bergheim (Germany),
Wilfried Kuckelkorn,
Helmut Kuhne, residing in Soest (Germany), Bernd Lange,
residing in Hanover (Germany), Kurt Lechner, residing in
Kaiserslautern (Germany), Jo Leinen, residing in Saarbrucken
(Germany), Rolf Linkohr, residing in Stuttgart
(Germany),
Giorgio Lisi, residing in Rimini (Italy), Erika Mann, residing in
residing in
Bad Gandersheim (Germany), Thomas Mann,

residing

residing

residing

residing in Klagenfurt

residing in Catane (Italy),

(Germany), Mario Mauro,

residing in
Schwalbach/Taunus
residing in Vechta (Germany),
Milan, Hans-Peter Mayer,
Winfried Menrad, residing in Schwäbisch Hall
(Germany),
Peter-Michael Mombaur, residing in Düsseldorf, Rosemarie
Müller, residing in Nieder-Olm (Germany), Hartmut Nassauer,
residing in Wolfhagen (Germany), Giuseppe Nistico, residing
in Rome, Willi Piecyk, residing in Reinfeld (Germany), Hubert
Pirker,
(Austria), Christa Randzio-
Plath, residing in Hamburg, Bernhard Rapkay, residing in
Dortmund (Germany), Mechtild Rothe, residing in Bad Lipp-
springe (Germany), Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, residing in Berlin
(Germany), Paul Rübig, residing in Wels (Austria), Umberto
Scapagnini,
Jannis Sakellariou,
residing in Munich (Germany), Horst Schnellhardt, residing in
Langenstein (Germany), Jürgen Schröder, residing in Dresden
(Germany), Martin Schulz, residing in Würselen (Germany),
Renate Sommer, residing in Herne (Germany), Ulrich Stock-
mann, residing in Bad Kösen (Germany), Maurizio Turco,
residing in Pulsano (Italy), Guido Viceconte, residing in Bari
(Italy), Ralf Walter, residing in Cochem (Germany), Brigitte
Wenzel-Perillo, residing in Leipzig, Rainer Wieland, residing
in Stuttgart, Stefano Zappala, residing in Latina (Italy), and
Jürgen Zimmerling, residing in Essen (Germany), represented
by: H.-J. Rabe, Rechtsanwalt, against the judgment of the Court
of First Instance (Fifth Chamber) of 26 February 2002 in Case
T-17/00 Rothley and Others v Parliament [2002] ECR II-579,
seeking to have that judgment set aside, the other parties to the
proceedings being: European Parliament,
represented by
J. Schoo and H. Krück, acting as Agents, with an address for
service in Luxembourg, defendant at first instance, Kingdom
of
French
Republic, Council of the European Union (Agents: M. Bauer
and I. Díez Parra) and Commission of
the European
Communities (Agents: H.-P. Hartvig and U. Wölker) with an
address for service in Luxembourg, interveners at first instance,
the Court (Full Court), composed of V. Skouris, President, P.
Jann (Rapporteur), C. Gulmann, J.N. Cunha Rodrigues and A.
Rosas, Presidents of Chambers, A. La Pergola, J.-P. Puissochet,
R. Schintgen, F. Macken, N. Colneric and S. von Bahr, Judges,
Advocate General: F.G. Jacobs, Registrar: M.-F. Contet, Principal
Administrator, has given a judgment on 30 March 2004 in
which it:

the Netherlands,

(Agent: H.G.

Sevenster),

1) Dismisses the appeal;

2) Orders the appellants to bear their own costs and to pay those

incurred by the European Parliament;

3) Orders the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Council of the Euro-
pean Union and the Commission of the European Communities to
bear their own costs.

(1) OJ C 156 of 29.6.2002.