Case T-590/23: Judgment of the General Court of 29 October 2025 – De Capitani v Council (Access to documents – Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – Working documents issued by the General Secretariat of the Council concerning two legislative proposals pending at the time of the request for access – Partial refusal of access – Exception relating to the protection of the decision-making process – Action for annulment – No publication, in the Council’s register, of documents to which access was granted pursuant to a request – Absence of a challengeable act – Inadmissibility)
Date: 2025-10-29
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: access to EU information, admissibility, decision-making, disclosure of information, legislative procedure, proposal (EU)








C_202506505EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/6505


15.12.2025






Judgment of the General Court of 29 October 2025 – De Capitani v Council


(Case T-590/23)
                (1)

(Access to documents - Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Working documents issued by the General Secretariat of the Council concerning two legislative proposals pending at the time of the request for access - Partial refusal of access - Exception relating to the protection of the decision-making process - Action for annulment - No publication, in the Council’s register, of documents to which access was granted pursuant to a request - Absence of a challengeable act - Inadmissibility)
(C/2025/6505)
Language of the case: English

Parties


Applicant: Emilio De Capitani (Brussels, Belgium) (represented by: O. Brouwer, T. van Helfteren and N. Piga, lawyers)

Defendant: Council of the European Union (represented by: L. Atzeni, X. Chamodraka and J. Rurarz, acting as Agents)

Intervener in support of the applicant: Kingdom of Belgium (represented by: M. Jacobs and C. Pochet, acting as Agents), Republic of Finland (represented by: H. Leppo and M. Pere, acting as Agents), Kingdom of Sweden (represented by: C. Meyer-Seitz, acting as Agent)

Intervener in support of the defendant: French Republic (represented by: B. Fodda, B. Herbaut, S. Royon and B. Travard, acting as Agents)

Re:

By his action based on Article 263 TFEU, the applicant seeks the annulment, first, of Decision SGS 23/002579 of the Council of the European Union of 14 July 2023 in so far as it refused him access, on the basis of the exception relating to the protection of the decision-making process, to two working documents drawn up by the General Secretariat of the Council in the context of two legislative procedures pending at the time of the request for access (2016/0132 (COD) and 2020/0279 (COD)) which were part of the Pact on Migration and Asylum and, secondly, of the ‘implicit or continued explicit decision’ of the Council not to directly publish, in the register it keeps, legislative documents to which access was granted pursuant to a request under 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).

Operative part of the judgment

The Court:






1.


Annuls Decision SGS 23/002579 of the Council of the European Union of 14 July 2023;










2.


Dismisses the action as to the remainder;










3.


Orders the Council to bear its own costs and to pay half of those incurred by Mr Emilio De Capitani;










4.


Orders Mr Emilio de Capitani to pay half of his own costs;










5.


Orders the Kingdom of Belgium, the French Republic, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden to bear their own costs.






(1)  
            OJ C, C/2023/542, 6.11.2023.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/6505/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)