Subject: Your request for access to documents - Ref Gestdem 2013/2371 Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:02:11 +0000 From: SJ-ACCES-DOCS@EC To: linus@ Dear M. Nordberg, I refer to your e-mail dated 22 April 2013 to President Barroso in connection with his reply, on behalf of the Commission, to the parliamentary question E-000018/2013 relating to the case A-1/12, in which it is indicated that "the European Parliament having itself submitted written submissions in case A-1/12 the question asked by the Court of Justice as well as the letter of the Commission of 20 December 2012 have been served also on the European Parliament". From the reply of the European Parliament to your request for a copy of the question asked by the Court to the Commission, I note that, even if the European Parliament has itself submitted written observations in this case, the "Court has not notified the Parliament of its question to the Commission in case A-1/12". Contrary to what you indicate in your request, the Commission does not send procedural documents to other parties. The Registrar of the Court is in charge of this transmission. In the present case, this transmission did not occur due to the withdraw of the request for opinion by the Commission. The European Parliament has therefore advised you to address your request to the European Commission. In the light of the above, you request, on the one hand, for information about the procedure of transmission of documents to the European Parliament and, on the other hand, for a copy of the question asked by the Court of Justice to the Commission in case A-1/12. Concerning the first part of your request (procedure of transmission of documents), the Secretariat General will reply to you directly. The Commission's Legal Service is in charge of the second part of your request (point 5 of your request). The question of the Court to the Commission, being a procedural document, does not fall within the scope of Regulation 1049/2001 as Article 15(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFUE) specifies that the Court is only subject to obligations on Transparency when exercising their administrative tasks. This has as consequence that the document itself can't be disclosed by the Commission. However, I can tell you that in its question to the Commission, the Court merely invited the Commission to advise the Court whether - and to what extent -rejection of ACTA by the European Parliament on 4 July 2012, had an impact on the request for opinion the Commission has introduced in relation with this agreement. I hope that, by my present reply, your request has been fully satisfied. Best regards, Diana TILOUCHE European Commission Legal Service BERL 1/111 B-1049 Brussels/Belgium