Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Procedure - ECSC - File forwarded by an institution to the Community court pursuant to Article 23 of the ECSC Statute of the Court of Justice - Right of access - Access to internal documents

(ECSC Statute of the Court of Justice, Art. 23)

Summary

The purpose of Article 23 of the ECSC Statute of the Court of Justice, concerning the forwarding by a Community institution to the Community court of the documents relating to a case pending before it, is to enable the Court to exercise its power of review of the legality of the contested decision, having regard to the rights of the defence, and not to guarantee all the parties unconditional and unrestricted access to the administrative file.

It is necessary to distinguish the documents relating to the case, transmitted pursuant to Article 23 of the ECSC Statute of the Court of Justice, which remain wholly extraneous to the proceedings and are not taken into consideration by the Court of First Instance in deciding the case, from the case-file, which is constituted in accordance with Article 5(1) of the Instructions to the Registrar of the Court of First Instance and to which the parties have access under the conditions laid down in Article 5(3) of those Instructions.

Internal documents concerning the administrative procedure and the preparation of a Commission decision relating to the application of the Treaty competition rules are to be placed in the case-file, and thus communicated to the applicant, only exceptionally, if they appear prima facie to contain relevant elements of proof tending to corroborate evidence already advanced by it or if they are necessary to enable the Court to verify of its own motion, should the need arise, that the Commission is not in breach of its obligations under the Treaty. That restriction on access to internal documents is justified by the need to ensure the proper functioning of the Commission when dealing with infringements of the Treaty competition rules.

The Court of First Instance exercises its power of review only with respect to the final administrative act, and not the draft or preparatory documents relating to it.