There are two new decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union that deal with the Access to Documents Regulation. Both decisions repeal earlier decisions of the General Court (former Court of First Instance), and are more restrictive in their understanding of the right of access to documents.
The first decision – on Case T-194/04 Bavarian Lager v Commission, deals with personal data. The Court points out that where a request based on the Access to Documents Regulation seeks to obtain access to documents including personal data, the provisions of the Data Protection Regulation become applicable in their entirety. This means that the recipient of personal data has to establish the need for the disclosure of the personal data, and the subject in question has the right to object at any time, on compelling legitimate grounds relating to his or her particular situation, to the processing of data relating to him or her.
In the second decision – on Case T-237/02 Technische Glaswerke Ilmenau v Commission, the Court examines the specifics of the state aid procedure. According to the Court interested parties other than the Member State responsible for granting the aid do not have a right under those procedures to consult the documents on the Commission’s administrative file.
European Union Law 
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