54Sixthly and lastly, the Commission maintains that the approach ultimately adopted by the General Court runs counter to the case-law of the Court of Justice and, in particular, to Joined Cases C-174/98 P and C-189/98 P Netherlands and van der Wal v Commission [2000] ECR I-1, in which the Court held that, where the Commission has received an application for access to documents, it may find it necessary to consult the national court prior to any disclosure of those documents, since the above approach would mean that an institution must take a decision alone as to the disclosure of all documents relating to a pending case which are submitted to the Community Courts or generated by them. That would be incompatible with the institution’s obligation to respect the rights of the other parties to defend their interests before the Community Courts, while at the same time complying with the Rules of Procedure of those Courts.
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