CELEX: C2003/146/70
Language: en
Date: 2003-06-21 00:00:00
Title: Judgment of the Court of First Instance of 9 April 2003 in Case T-217/01: Forum des migrants de l'Union européenne v Commission of the European Communities (Community financial support — Operating costs — Decision to terminate financial support — Principle of sound financial management — Interpretation of the conditions of support — Right to a fair hearing — Protection of legitimate expectations)

21.6.2003              EN                          Official Journal of the European Union                                         C 146/39
     JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE                               The applicant claims that the Court should:
                          of 9 April 2003                                  —     annul, on the basis of art. 230 of EC Treaty, Council
                                                                                 Decision of 21 January 2003 (41/c/01/02): Answer
in Case T-217/01: Forum des migrants de l’Union euro-                            adopted by the Council on the 21st of January 2003 to
   péenne v Commission of the European Communities ( 1)                          the confirmatory application of M. Jan Fermon sent by
                                                                                 fax on the 11 of December 2002 under Article 7 (2) of
                                                                                 the Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, notified to the
(Community financial support — Operating costs —                                 applicant’s counsel on January 23, 2003.
Decision to terminate financial support — Principle of sound
financial management — Interpretation of the conditions of
support — Right to a fair hearing — Protection of legitimate               —     require the respondent party to bear the costs of suit.
                            expectations)
                          (2003/C 146/70)
                    (Language of the case: French)                         Pleas in law and main arguments
In Case T-217/01, Forum des migrants de l’Union européenne,                The applicant in the present case, who is also the applicant in
having its registered office in Brussels (Belgium), represented            Case T-47/03 Sison against Council and Commission (1),
initially by E. Degrez and subsequently by N. Crama, lawyers,              pursues the annulment of the defendants decision not to allow
v Commission of the European Communities (Agents:                          him access to all the documents which formed the basis of the
A.-M. Rouchaud-Joët and L. Parpala): Application for annul-                Council Decision 2002/848/EC ( 2), by which the applicant
ment of the Commission’s decision of 11 July 2001 to                       himself and the New People’s Army (NPA) are included in the
terminate the financial support granted to the applicant under             list pertinent to Article 2(3) of Regulation 2580/2001 ( 3), as
Article A0-3040 of the Community budget, the Court of First                well as access to any information regarding which Member
Instance (Fourth Chamber), composed of: V. Tiili, President,               States provided documents mentioned in the contested
P. Mengozzi and M. Vilaras, Judges; D. Christensen, Adminis-               Decision. The applicant also asked to be informed about the
trator, for the Registrar, has given a judgment on 9 April 2003,           rules and criteria applied by the Council regarding sensitive
in which it:                                                               documents that shall be made public following Article 9,
                                                                           point 6, of Regulation 1049/2001 ( 4).
1.     Dismisses the application;
2.     Orders the applicant to pay its own costs and those of the          The Council’s position was based on Article 4(a), first and third
       defendant.                                                          points, of the Regulation 1049/2001. According to the
                                                                           defendant, the disclosure of information with regard to
                                                                           combatting terrorism, which is in the possession of the
( 1) OJ C 317 of 10.11.2001.                                               Member States authorities, could give the persons, entities or
                                                                           groups who are the subject of this information, the opportunity
                                                                           to threaten the efforts of these authorities and thus undermine
                                                                           the protection of public interest as regards public security.
                                                                           With reference to the Member States that provided sensitive
                                                                           documents, the Council stated that the ‘originator authority’ is
                                                                           opposed to the disclosure of the requested information. About
Action brought on 24 March 2003 by Jose Maria Sison                        the rules concerning sensitive documents, the Council referred
          against the Council of the European Union                        to the Council decision 2001/264/CE adopting the Council’s
                                                                           security regulations.
                          (Case T-110/03)
                          (2003/C 146/71)                                  In support of its application, the applicant submits:
                   (Language of the case: English)                         —     Failure of motivation and violation of the principle of
                                                                                 sound administration.
An action against the Council of the European Union was                    —     Violation of the principles enshrined in Article 6 ECHR
brought before the Court of First Instance of the European                       and especially of the right to be informed promptly, in a
Communities on 24 March 2003 by Jose Maria Sison, Utrecht,                       language which the applicant understands and in detail,
the Netherlands, represented by Mr J. Fermon, Mr A. Comte,                       of the nature and cause of the accusation, as well as of
Mr H. Schultz and Mr D. Gurses, lawyers.                                         the principle of proportionality.