ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΪΚΗΣ ΕΝΩΣΗΣ. Βρυξέλλες, 27 Νοεμβρίου 2009 (02.12) (OR. en) 15433/09 INF 279 API 129 JUR 443

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1 ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙΟ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΡΩΠΑΪΚΗΣ ΕΝΩΣΗΣ Βρυξέλλες, 27 Νοεμβρίου 2009 (02.12) (OR. en) 15433/09 INF 279 API 129 JUR 443 ΣΗΜΕΙΩΜΑ ΣΗΜΕΙΟΥ «I/A» της : Ομάδας «Πληροφόρηση» προς : την Επιτροπή των Μόνιμων Αντιπροσώπων (2ο τμήμα) / το Συμβούλιο αριθ. προηγ. εγγρ.: 15432/09 Θέμα : Πρόσβαση του κοινού σε έγγραφα - Επιβεβαιωτική αίτηση αριθ. 26/c/02/09 Διαβιβάζεται συνημμένως προς τις αντιπροσωπίες σχέδιο απάντησης του Συμβουλίου στην επιβεβαιωτική αίτηση αριθ. 26/c/02/09, όπως προέκυψε από την εξέταση στην οποία προέβη η ομάδα εργασίας «Πληροφόρηση» κατά τη συνεδρίασή της στις 23 Νοεμβρίου Η σουηδική αντιπροσωπία δήλωσε ότι θα καταψηφίσει το σχέδιο απάντησης. Υποβλήθηκαν οι ακόλουθες δηλώσεις: ΦΙ: «Η φινλανδική αντιπροσωπία εκτιμά ότι το άρθρο 4 παράγραφος 2 του κανονισμού 1049/2001 εφαρμόζεται στις διαδικασίες ενώπιον διεθνούς δικαστηρίου και μπορεί να συμφωνήσει κατ ουσίαν με το συλλογισμό του σχεδίου απάντησης. Εντούτοις, η φινλανδική αντιπροσωπία τονίζει ότι αρμόδιο για την τελική απόφαση ως προς την κοινοποίηση εγγράφων είναι το όργανο που επιλαμβάνεται της αίτησης, δεδομένου ότι ο κανονισμός 1049/2001 δεν περιλαμβάνει διατάξεις που να επιτρέπουν στο όργανο να διαβιβάσει την αίτηση σε τρίτο μέρος.» 15433/09 AB/μκρ 1 DG F EL

2 ΣΔ: «Η σουηδική αντιπροσωπία θεωρεί ότι ορισμένα μέρη του εγγράφου που φέρουν αστερίσκο στο συνημμένο κατάλογο θα πρέπει να γνωστοποιηθούν στον αιτούντα. Δεδομένου ότι ορισμένα τμήματα των εν λόγω εγγράφων διατίθενται ήδη στο κοινό μέσω της βάσης δεδομένων του δικαστηρίου, η κοινοποίηση αυτών των τμημάτων δεν μπορεί να βλάψει το δημόσιο συμφέρον από απόψεως διεθνών σχέσεων ή να υπονομεύσει την προστασία των διαδικασιών του δικαστηρίου. Επίσης, σε ό,τι αφορά τα υπόλοιπα έγγραφα, η σουηδική αντιπροσωπία είχε την ευκαιρία να εξετάσει εν συντομία τα έγγραφα επί τόπου. Εν συνεχεία της εξέτασης αυτής, η σουηδική αντιπροσωπία θεωρεί ότι θα μπορούσε να επιτραπεί η περαιτέρω μερική πρόσβαση σε ορισμένα από τα έγγραφα αυτά. Συνεπώς, η σουηδική αντιπροσωπία καταψηφίζει το σχέδιο απάντησης.» Η πλειοψηφία των αντιπροσωπιών συμφώνησε να δημοσιευτεί το αποτέλεσμα της ψηφοφορίας. Η Επιτροπή των Μόνιμων Αντιπροσώπων καλείται επομένως να εισηγηθεί στο Συμβούλιο, στην προσεχή σύνοδό του: - να σημειώσει τη συμφωνία του για το συνημμένο σχέδιο απάντησης στα σημεία «Α», με την αρνητική ψήφο της σουηδικής αντιπροσωπίας, - να αποφασίσει τη δημοσίευση του αποτελέσματος της ψηφοφορίας. Το παράρτημα είναι διαθέσιμο μόνο στην αγγλική και γαλλική γλώσσα /09 AB/μκρ 2 DG F EL

3 ΠΑΡΑΡΤΗΜΑ I DRAFT REPLY ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL ON... TO CONFIRMATORY APPLICATION 26/c/02/09 made by fax on 23 October 2009, pursuant to Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, for public access to documents The Council has considered this confirmatory application under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 (OJ L 145 of , p. 43) and Annex II to the Council's Rules of Procedure (Council Decision 2006/683/EC, Euratom - OJ L 285 of , p. 47) and has come to the following conclusion: 1. The applicant refers to Council decisions concerning the transmission to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia () of documents requested by that Tribunal in connection with the "Prosecutor v. Gotovina et al." case (IT T) (first request) and to the entire correspondence exchanged in this context between the European Union institutions and the, including any annexes, and in particular the preliminary requests by the and by Mr Gotovina's defence (second request). 2. In its reply of 23 October 2009, the General Secretariat indicated that it had not managed to identify any document relating to the first application. The General Secretariat refused access to the documents requested in the second application on the grounds that, since they had been transferred to the file of a case currently before the, the requested documents formed part of pending judicial proceedings, which the, not the Council, was responsible for handling pursuant to the rules governing the transparency of its activities /09 AB/μκρ 3

4 3. In his confirmatory application lodged on 3 November 2009 and registered on that day by the Council, the applicant contests the General Secretariat's refusal to disclose the documents in question. First, he asks the Council to indicate the decision on the basis of which the documents were forwarded to the in the Gotovina case. Second, he contests the limitation by the General Secretariat of the scope of the application solely to correspondence between Secretary-General/High Representative Solana and the Office of the Prosecutor of the. Third, he alleges that the General Secretariat was incorrect in basing the refusal of his initial application on the exception relating to the protection of court proceedings, as provided for in the second indent of Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/ After examination of the application and following consultations, the Council has come to the conclusion set out below. 5. Firstly, it should be noted that, by virtue of the loyal cooperation with an international tribunal established by the United Nations Security Council, documents from the archives of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) have been made available to the Prosecutor of the for the purpose of investigation of dossiers relating to the prosecution of persons presumed to be responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Those documents were sent to the Office of the Prosecutor of the on a confidential basis, in accordance with Rule 70(B) of the 's Rules of Procedure and Evidence, which provides that "If the Prosecutor is in possession of information which has been provided to the Prosecutor on a confidential basis and which has been used solely for the purpose of generating new evidence, that initial information and it origin shall not be disclosed by the Prosecutor without the consent of the person or entity providing the initial information". 6. In the context of the Gotovina trial, currently pending before the, at the request of the Prosecutor of the and the Trial Chamber responsible for the case, the Council authorised the communication to Ante Gotovina's defence team of expurgated versions of several documents from EUMM archives /09 AB/μκρ 4

5 (a) Decision(s) concerning the transmission of documents to the in connection with the Gotovina case 7. The documents concerned were communicated to the for the purposes of the Gotovina trial under the authority of the Secretary-General of the Council, High Representative for the common foreign and security policy, who assists the Council in matters coming within the scope of the common foreign and security policy. The exchanges of letters between SG/HR Solana and the on the subject of the transmission of documents to the in the context of the Gotovina case will be examined in paragraph (b) below. The Council does not have any other "decisions" on this subject in its possession. (b) Correspondence exchanged between SG/HR Solana and the in the context of the Gotovina case and applications from the Mr Gotovina defence team 8. In its archives, the Council has found forty documents consisting of letters from SG/HR Solana, letters from the Prosecutor and Trial Chamber of the, and memoranda exchanged between the Gotovina defence team and SG/HR Solana in the context of the Gotovina trial, which are the subject of the second application (see the list in Annex II). The Council is not in possession of other documents such as possible written exchanges between other EU institutions and the. 9. In that connection, the Council would point out that, pursuant to Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the Regulation applies only to documents "held by an institution, that is to say, documents drawn up or received by it and in its possession" and that it does not therefore vest any rights in the applicant in relation to documents not in the institution's possession. However, for information purposes, the Council would draw the applicant's attention to the fact that the, in accordance with the relevant rules on the transparency of its activities, has made various items of information relating to the Gotovina case available to the public on its Internet site ( and in its court records database ( /09 AB/μκρ 5

6 10. As already stated in point 5 above, the Prosecutor of the has made requests to SG/HR Solana to have certain documents in the archives of the EUMM which were supplied to the Prosecutor's office on a confidential basis released to enable Ante Gotovina's defence team to acquaint themselves with them. The Trial Chamber of the has also requested, in letters addressed to SG/HR Solana, that documents be produced for the purposes of organising the Gotovina case. SG/HR Solana has replied to the requests for information made by the Prosecutor and Trial Chamber, stipulating certain conditions for making the documents concerned from the EUMM archives available to the Gotovina defence team. Enclosed with the SG/HR's letters are expurgated versions of the reports by the EU observers present in Croatia throughout the duration of the EUMM mission which contain observations, evaluations and an analysis of the political, military and security situation in the mission's zones of activity. With regard to the initial requests made by the Gotovina defence team, the Council points out that in the context of the Gotovina trial, the Gotovina defence team requested the Trial Chamber to subpoena documents from the EUMM archives, resulting in an exchange of memoranda between the Gotovina defence team and SG/HR Solana. 11. The documents in question contain confidential information relating to the organisation of the Gotovina trial for which responsibility lies with the, not with the Council. It should be emphasised that in the course of a judicial procedure before the, only this Tribunal is in a position to balance the interests in question and determine whether the disclosure of documents would cause irreparable damage to one or other of the parties or would jeopardise the fairness of the court proceedings. It has emerged from the Council's consultation of the that SG/HR Solana's communications with the Prosecutor of the are not accessible to the public under the 's rules on the transparency of its activities. With regard to the correspondence between the Trial Chamber and SG/HR Solana and the memoranda exchanged between the Gotovina defence team and SG/HR Solana in the context of the Gotovina trial, the has, in accordance with the relevant rules on the transparency of its activities, made the non-confidential sections of that correspondence available to the public in its court records database ( (see documents marked with an asterisk in the annexed list). Another part of that correspondence continues to be protected from any disclosure /09 AB/μκρ 6

7 12. Disclosure by the Council of not accessible documents concerning a judicial procedure which is still pending before the would reveal confidential information relating to the organisation of the Gotovina case and would thus interfere not only with the proper conduct of court proceedings pending before the, but also with the principle of loyal cooperation with an international tribunal established by the United Nations Security Council. 13. Moreover, disclosure of the reports by EUMM observers enclosed with SG/HR Solana's letters to the Prosecutor at the would put at risk the international relations of the EU and its Member States with the countries concerned in the Western Balkans by releasing information revealing in detail comments, assessments and analyses of the political, military and security situation in the area exchanged confidentially between the different components of the EUMM. That information remains sensitive, as is demonstrated by the interest it arouses in the context of the proceedings before the. Moreover, disclosure of the documents in question would create a precedent which would defeat the purpose for the EU to continue to carry out its policy towards the Western Balkans. The Council considers that the confidentiality of the reports is an essential factor in enhancing trust in the dialogue and cooperation with the countries of the region. 14. The applicant claims that the rules of procedure cannot be invoked by the EU institutions as a basis for refusing access to documents since the European Union is not bound by those rules because it is not a member of the United Nations. In that connection, the Council would reiterate that the obligation to cooperate with the, set out in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions adopted pursuant to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, is binding on all the Member States of the European Union. In addition, promoting international cooperation is one of the objectives of the common foreign and security policy listed in Article 11(1) of the EU Treaty. The Council has in several occasions underlined the fundamental importance to respect the without reservation and to collaborate with it, which has led the Council to approve common positions to support an effective implementation of the mandate of the /09 AB/μκρ 7

8 15. The Council does not share the applicant's reading of the second indent of Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 which cannot be regarded as being confined to court proceedings of the EU and its Member States. The Council would also point out that the principles of the integrity of court proceedings and sound administration, which were the motives for the legislator's decision to provide protection for court proceedings under the second indent of Article 4(2) of the Regulation, apply as much to international court proceedings as to Community and national court proceedings. 16. The Council has examined whether any overriding public interest could justify disclosure of the documents concerned in accordance with the second indent of Article 4(2) of the Regulation. Since the documents requested relate to court proceedings still pending and since the Trial Chamber has made many items of information relating to the trial available to the public, public interest in having access to the trial-related documents not published cannot prevail over the public interest relating to sound administration of justice. 17. Under those conditions, in accordance with the third indent of Article 4(1)(a) (protection of international relations) and the second indent of Article 4(2) (protection of court proceedings) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, public access to the documents requested must be refused. 18. The Council has also examined the possibility of granting partial access, under Article 4(6) of the Regulation, to the requested documents but has concluded that the exceptions referred to apply to the documents requested in their entirety because the court proceedings to which they relate are still pending /09 AB/μκρ 8

9 ΠΑΡΑΡΤΗΜΑ ΙΙ Date Sender Addressee Subject Status 1 29/04/2008 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 2 5/05/2008 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 3 21/05/2008 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 4 11/06/2008 SG/HR Solana request dated 10/6/2008 not accessible 5 16/06/2008 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 6 17/06/2008 SG/HR Solana reply to the request dated 10/6/2008 not accessible 7 13/08/2008 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 8 24/09/2008 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 9 26/09/2008 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 10 22/10/2008 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 11 28/10/2008 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 12 16/01/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 13 06/04/2009 request and invitation to reply SG/HR Solana dated 3/4/2009 accessible * 14 17/04/2009 SG/HR Solana reply to the request dated 3/4/ /05/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 16 13/05/2009 notification of reply and SG/HR Solana invitation to surreply dated 12/5/ /05/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 18 26/05/2009 SG/HR Solana reply to request dated 12/5/ /05/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 20 9/06/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 21 12/06/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 22 15/06/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 23 15/06/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 24 16/06/2009 notification of reply dated SG/HR Solana 23/4/ /06/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 26 22/06/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 27 28/07/2009 SG/HR Solana request dated 19/6/ /07/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 29 31/07/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 30 13/08/2009 SG/HR Solana reply to request dated 19/6/ /08/2009 notification of reply dated SG/HR Solana 13/8/ /08/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 33 10/09/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 34 15/09/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 35 18/09/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 36 22/09/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 37 6/10/2009 Prosecutor Brammertz SG/HR Solana transmission of documents not accessible 38 15/10/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 39 19/10/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible 40 09/11/2009 SG/HR Solana Procureur Brammertz transmission of documents not accessible * Made available to the public by the in its court records database ( /09 ΑΒ/μκρ 9 ΠΑΡΑΡΤΗΜΑ ΙΙ DG F EL