Judgment_paragraph 53 · European Commission v Stichting Greenpeace Nederland and Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) (C-673/13 P)

53Therefore, it is only in so far as they derogate from the principle of the widest possible public access to those documents by restricting such access that exceptions to that principle, in particular those provided for in Article 4 of Regulation No 1049/2001, must, according to the Court’s settled case-law, be interpreted and applied strictly (see, to that effect, judgments of 21 September 2010, Sweden and Others v API and Commission, C‑514/07 P, C‑528/07 P and C‑532/07 P, EU:C:2010:541, paragraph 73, and 17 October 2013, Council v Access Info Europe, C‑280/11 P, EU:C:2013:671, paragraph 30). The need for such a restrictive interpretation is, moreover, confirmed by recital 15 of Regulation No 1367/2006.