Case T-641/25: Action brought on 19 September 2025 – ClientEarth v Commission
Date: 2025-09-19
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: EU environmental policy, access to EU information, disclosure of information, environmental law








C_202506187EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/6187


24.11.2025






Action brought on 19 September 2025 – ClientEarth v Commission


(Case T-641/25)

(C/2025/6187)
Language of the case: English

Parties


Applicant: ClientEarth (Ixelles, Belgium) (represented by: F. Logue, Solicitor)

Defendant: European Commission

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:






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annul the Decision of the Commission, set out in a letter of 9 July 2025 (‘the contested decision’), by which the Commission rejected a request for internal review dated 30 January 2025, brought pursuant to Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1), of selected provisions of Detailed Rules 2024/3080 (2) (or ‘the Rules of Procedure’) and its annex, providing for ‘Detailed rules or the application of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents’; and










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order the defendant pay the applicant’s costs of these proceedings.





Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on the following pleas in law.






1.


First plea in law, alleging that the Commission made an error of law in declaring the request for internal review inadmissible.




The Commission made an error of law in rejecting the request for internal review because the contested provisions could be qualified as contravening environmental law within the meaning of Article 2(1)(f) of Regulation No 1367/2006.






2.


Second plea in law, alleging that the Commission made an error of law in finding that Article 65(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Articles 1 and 2(1) of the Annex to the Rules of Procedure did not contravene Articles 2(1)(a) and 3 of Regulation No 1367/2006.




The Commission erred in concluding that the contested provisions, in so far as they provide for the right of access to documents containing environmental information only to EU citizens and natural or legal persons residing or having their registered office in a Member State, did not contravene the provisions of Regulation No 1367/2006.






3.


Third plea in law, alleging that the Commission made errors of law in the interpretation of (a) the definitions of documents ‘held by’ and/or ‘drawn up by’ the Commission; (b) exceptions to the obligation to register documents; and (c) requirements to retain and/or register certain text messages:






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the Commission erred in adopting a narrow definition of ‘held by’ and ‘drawn up by’;










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the Commission erred in finding that the Detailed Rules did not unlawfully exclude certain categories of documents from the obligation to register documents;










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the Commission erred in finding that the rule that text messages must be automatically deleted will not unlawfully prevent access to text messages containing environmental information.














4.


Fourth plea in law, alleging that the Commission made errors of law in identifying general presumptions of non-disclosure:






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the Commission erred in the contested decision by identifying a general presumption that access to opinions of the Legal Service would undermine the interests protected by Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3);










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the Commission erred in the contested decision by identifying a general presumption that access to documents relating to an ongoing authorisation process would undermine the interests protected by Article 4 of Regulation No 1049/2001;










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the Commission erred in the contested decision by failing to recognise that the interests protected by Article 4(1) may be overridden in the public interest under Article 6 of Regulation No 1367/2006;










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the Commission erred by specifying that an authorisation procedure is ongoing until there is a final act closing those proceedings which can no longer be contested before the Union or Member State courts.














5.


Fifth plea in law, alleging that the Commission made errors of law in restricting the scope and timing of legislative documents to be made directly available to the public under Article 4 of Regulation No 1367/2006 read with Article 12 of Regulation No 1049/2001:






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the Commission erred by finding that it was not obliged to make legislative documents directly available to the public;










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the Commission erred in the contested decision in finding that the timing of the provision of direct access to certain legislative documents under Article 3(1) of the Annex was not contrary to Article 12 of Regulation No 1049/2001 in conjunction with Article 11 of Regulation No 1367/2006 and the case law;










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the Commission erred by finding that the closed list of legislative documents listed in Article 3(2) of the Annex was consistent with Article 4 of Regulation No 1049/2001 read with Article 11 of Regulation No 1367/2006.










(1)  Regulation (EC) No 1367/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on the application of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters to Community institutions and bodies (OJ 2006 L 264, p. 13).

(2)  Commission Decision (EU) 2024/3080 of 4 December 2024 establishing the Rules of Procedure of the Commission and amending Decision C(2000) 3614 (OJ L, 2024/3080).

(3)  Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ 2001 L 145, p. 43).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/6187/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)