Access to Member State documents in EC law

Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to discuss the interpretation of Art.4(5) of Regulation 1049/2001 on public access to documents in the recent case law. It examines how, on the one hand, the Court of First Instance has, for the purposes of that provision, construed the terms "Member State" and "document originating" from a Member State and, on the other, its explicit acknowledgement that Art.4(5) grants the Member States a power of veto as regards the disclosure of documents they have communicated to the institutions. It concludes that the Court's approach is inadequate, as it allows the application of the fundamental principle of widest possible access to documents held by the institutions on which the Regulation rests to be defeated.