Judgment_paragraph 42 · Maria Concetta Cerafogli v European Central Bank (T-114/13 P)

42It must be held, however, that the considerations taken into account by the Civil Service Tribunal in paragraphs 221 and 222 of the judgment under appeal in order to refuse access to the appellant, during the first instance judicial proceedings, to the minutes of the testimony annexed to the inquiry report are vitiated by an error of law. To justify that decision, the Civil Service Tribunal relied (i) on the assertion that the appellant was not entitled to take cognisance of those documents during the administrative procedure, (ii) on the ‘particularly full and informative’ nature of the inquiry report and (iii) on the need to guarantee the neutrality and objectivity of the inquiries in order to obtain the unreserved cooperation of members of staff, which the removal of the confidentiality of testimony during the proceedings could undermine.