CELEX: 62019CA0470
Language: en
Date: 2021-04-15 00:00:00
Title: Case C-470/19: Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 15 April 2021 (request for a preliminary ruling from the High Court (Ireland) — Ireland) — Friends of the Irish Environment Ltd v Commissioner for Environmental Information (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Aarhus Convention — Directive 2003/4/EC — Right of access to environmental information held by public authorities — Article 2, point 2 — Notion of ‘public authority’ — Bodies or institutions when acting in a judicial or legislative capacity — Information in the file of closed court proceedings)

7.6.2021   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 217/5
            
         
      Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 15 April 2021 (request for a preliminary ruling from the High Court (Ireland) — Ireland) — Friends of the Irish Environment Ltd v Commissioner for Environmental Information
      (Case C-470/19) (1)
      
      (Reference for a preliminary ruling - Aarhus Convention - Directive 2003/4/EC - Right of access to environmental information held by public authorities - Article 2, point 2 - Notion of ‘public authority’ - Bodies or institutions when acting in a judicial or legislative capacity - Information in the file of closed court proceedings)
      (2021/C 217/06)
      Language of the case: English
      
         Referring court
      
      High Court (Ireland)
      
         Parties to the main proceedings
      
      
         Applicant: Friends of the Irish Environment Ltd
      
         Defendant: Commissioner for Environmental Information
      
         Intervening party: Courts Service of Ireland
      
         Operative part of the judgment
      
      Article 2, point 2, of Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC must be interpreted as meaning that it does not govern access to environmental information contained in court files, where neither the courts nor the bodies or institutions under their control, which thus have close links with those courts, constitute ‘public authorities’ within the meaning of that provision and therefore do not fall within the scope of that directive.
      
         (1)  OJ C 280, 19.8.2019.