Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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European Communities - Institutions - Obligations - Duty to cooperate with national authorities acting to ensure respect for Community law - Implementation - Disclosure of documents and authorization of officials to give evidence - Legitimate grounds of refusal - Review by the Court

Summary

The Community institutions' duty of sincere cooperation with the judicial authorities of the Member States which are responsible for ensuring that Community law is applied and respected in the national legal system does not preclude a refusal to disclose documents or to authorize officials to give evidence where there are legitimate grounds relating to the protection of the rights of third parties or where there may be interference with the functioning and independence of the Communities . In the case of such refusal the institution concerned must provide the Court with the information required to allow it to decide whether the refusal is justified .