Judgment of the Court of First Instance (Fifth Chamber) of 27 November 2007.
Athanasios Pitsiorlas v Council of the European Union and European Central Bank.
Access to documents - Basle/Nyborg Agreement - Action for annulment - Challengeable acts - Statement of reasons - Plea of illegality - Decision 93/731/EC - Rules of Procedure of the European Central Bank - Action for damages - Non-contractual liability of the Community for the unlawful conduct of its organs - Damage - Causal link.
Joined cases T-3/00 and T-337/04.
Joined cases T-3/00 and T-337/04. (2007)
Language: English

By letter of 27 July 1999, the applicant wrote to the ECB to request a re‑examination of his request on the basis of Article 23.3 of the ECB Rules of Procedure which authorises the Governing Council, in special cases, to shorten the 30-year period of confidentiality. The applicant added that the subject of his research could comfortably fall within the meaning of ‘special cases’, as referred to in that article.
By letter of 2 August 1999, notified to the applicant on 8 August 1999, the General Secretariat of the Council informed the applicant of the Council’s decision of 30 July 1999 responding to the applicant’s formal request based on Decision 93/731 (‘the Council decision’). This decision was drafted in the following terms:
‘Reply approved by the Council on 30 July 1999 to the formal request of Mr Pitsiorlas (1/99), which was submitted to the Council by letter of 8 June 1999, registered by the [General Secretariat] of the Council on 10 June 1999 in accordance with Article 7(1) of … Decision 93/731/EC, for permission for access to the document:
Basle/Nyborg Agreement (September 1987).
Following a detailed search, we have established that the document referred to in your request is the “reportˮ of the Committee of Governors on the reinforcement of the EMS, which was published by the Committee of Governors … at Nyborg on 8 September 1987.
Since the rules on the administrative functioning of the EMS have never formed part of Community law, the Council has never been called upon to take a decision of this nature.
Since the document requested in this case was produced by the Governors of the Central Banks, we suggest you address your request directly to the Governors of the Central Banks or to the ECB … pursuant to Article 2(2) of the decision.’ 

Legal relationship diagram (Graphviz):
digraph {
    rankdir=LR;
    node [shape=box];
    
   "The applicant"[shape=doubleoctagon];
   "The General Secretariat of the Council"[shape=doubleoctagon];
   "ECB"[shape=doubleoctagon];
    
   "The applicant"->"Letter 27/07/1999";
   "Letter 27/07/1999"->"ECB";
   "Letter 27/07/1999"->"Request a re‑examination of his request on the basis of Article 23.3 of the ECB Rules of Procedure which authorises the Governing Council, in special cases, to shorten the 30-year period of confidentiality."[dir=none];
   "ECB"->"Letter 08/11/1999";
   "Letter 08/11/1999"->"The applicant";
   "Letter 08/11/1999"->"No grant access to the archives of the Committee of Governors."[dir=none];
   "The General Secretariat of the Council"->"Letter 02/08/1999";
   "Letter 02/08/1999"->"The applicant";
   "Letter 02/08/1999"->"Inform of the Council’s decision of 30 July 1999 responding to the applicant’s formal request based on Decision 93/731. Permission for access to the Basle/Nyborg Agreement (September 1987)."[dir=none];
}