Rules and procedures for the implementation of Regulation 1367/2006 by the Court

La solicitud fue exitosa.

Dear European Court of Justice,

Under the right of access to environmental information in the Aarhus Convention as developed in Regulation 1367/2006, I am requesting the following information:

The rules and procedures adopted by the CJEU in order to implement REGULATION (EC) No 1367/2006 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 6 September 2006.

Article 2(1)(c) obliges the Court to provide access to environmental information to the public under this regulation.

Yours faithfully,

Fred Logue

Dear European Court of Justice,

I was wondering if you received my request for access to environmental information under Regulation 1367/2006.

This Regulation obliges Community Institutions (including the CJEU) to provide access to information on the environment to the public using the procedures in Regulation 1049/2001.

The CJEU is obliged to acknowledge receipt of my request and to provide a decision within 15 working days.

Yours faithfully,

Fred Logue

Dear European Court of Justice,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of European Court of Justice's handling of my FOI request 'Rules and procedures for the implementation of Regulation 1367/2006 by the Court'.

I have not received a response within the time mandated by Regulation 1367/2006 therefore I am requesting an internal review of the decision to refuse my request, such a decision being a deemed refusal by not responding.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/rules...

Yours faithfully,

Fred Logue

Dear European Court of Justice,

I wish to point out that I have not received a response within the 15 working day deadline for a confirmatory application.

Could you please update me as to the status of my request. Since I have not received any response to my request I plan on making a complaint to the Ombudsman if I don't hear from you by 4 October 2013.

Yours faithfully,

Fred Logue

Fred Logue dejó un comentario ()

Complaint filed with Ombudsman on 5 October 2013

Gonzalez Juan-Carlos, Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea

Dear Mr. Logue,

Further to your request for access to document(s) containing rules and procedures adopted by the Court of Justice of the European Union (hereinafter the ‘CJEU’) in order to implement 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 L 264, 25.09.2006, p. 13), I would like to apologize – on behalf of the CJEU – for the delay in reacting to your request.

Such a delay is mainly due to the non-use of the compulsory form referred to in Article 4(1) of the Decision of the CJEU of 11 December 2012 concerning public access to documents held by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the exercise of its administrative functions (OJ C 38, 09.02.2013, p. 2) (hereinafter the ‘Decision of 11 December 2012’), which is applicable to any request for access to documents held by the CJEU in its administrative functions, irrespective of whether they contain environmental information within the meaning of Article 2(1)(d) of Regulation No 1367/2006, or not.

Actually, the fact that Article 3 of Regulation No 1367/2006 provides that 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 L 145, 31.05.2001, p. 43) shall apply to any request for access to environmental information held by European Union institutions and bodies does not preclude the application of provisions adopted by the latter setting out procedural modalities for the submission of requests for access to documents, as long as they are not incompatible with Regulation No 1367/2006 and, in cascade, with Regulation No 1049/2001.

There is no doubt that provisions such as the one laid down in Article 4(1) of the Decision of 11 December 2012, detailing by which means requests for access to documents held by the CJEU in the exercise of its administrative functions have to be submitted, are not incompatible with the abovementioned regulations.

Therefore, any application for access to documents containing environmental information held by the CJEU in the exercise of its administrative functions should be introduced through the form available on the CJEU website in an official EU language (http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/jcms/P_92908/).

Despite the fact that your request has not been introduced in accordance with this requirement, exceptionally, the Court has decided to reply to it, due to the delay already taken in dealing with it.

It follows from the above that the Decision of 11 December 2012 can be considered as containing rules and procedures which are applicable to requests for access to documents (held by the CJEU in the exercise of its administrative functions) introduced in the framework of Regulation No 1367/2006. No particular rule/procedure has been adopted by the CJEU with the specific aim of implementing Regulation No 1367/2006.

In the future, in case you wish to ask for access to documents with regard to environmental information held by the CJEU in the exercise of its administrative functions, please bear in mind that your request has to be submitted via the form available on the CJEU website (see above) specifying the documents for which you are requesting access.

Yours sincerely,

Juan Carlos González
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Head of Unit Press and Information
Court of Justice of the European Union
L-2925 Luxembourg
 +352 4303 2623
 +352 4303 2500
www.curia.europa.eu
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Dear Gonzalez Juan-Carlos,

Thank you for your reply and for letting me know that the CJEU holds no information in relation to my request.

I have forwarded your response to the official in the Ombudsman's office who is responsible for handling this case.

I would make a brief comment in relation to your legal justification in relation to the delay. While I agree that the Court may provide an online form to facilitate requests for environmental information I disagree that it can mandate the use of this form.

Even based on first principles mandating use of the internet discriminates against requestors who do not have access to the internet. In that case it is likely that Article 4(1) of the Decision of the CJEU of 11 December 2012 is illegal based on the Treaties and the principles of EU law.

Turning to the relevant Regulations you would need to point to a specific provision in relation to mandatory formalities in either 1367/2006 or 1049/2001 to support your contention and you have not done so since no such provision exists. The CJEU does not have the power to limit the scope of the application of these regulations which have been adopted by the legislature.

Indeed you might note that most of the institutions of the EU are happy to accept and respond to requests for access to information via email and through the AskTheEU system.

Yours sincerely,

Fred Logue

Gonzalez Juan-Carlos, Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea

Dear Mr. Logue,
In response to your remarks in your mail to me and to your mail of 28th of November 2013 to the Registry of the Court of Justice, let me just point out that Article 4(1) of the Decision of the CJEU of 11 December 2012 concerning public access to documents held by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the exercise of its administrative functions does not require the use of the Internet for the introduction of requests for access to documents , but only the use of a form. However, this form, pursuant to this provision, is available on the Curia website, but can also be made available on paper by simple request by any citizen who does not have Internet access or prefers to submit their request on paper and not online. A request for access to documents made on paper may be submitted by mail , fax or electronically, as provided in Article 4(1), second sentence, of the decision. There is therefore no discrimination of citizens who do not have access to the internet.

With regard to your remarks concerning the interpretation of the scope of Regulations 1049/2001 and 1367/2006, the Court has taken note of your position but does not share it for the reasons already stated in my former message to you.

Best regards,

Yours sincerely,

Juan Carlos González
-----------------------------------
Head of Unit Press and Information
Court of Justice of the European Union
L-2925 Luxembourg
' +352 4303 2623
7 +352 4303 2500
www.curia.europa.eu

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