20According to the Council, even if it is assumed that the Council is required to demonstrate that procedures in place in a third State provide guarantees in respect of the rights of the defence and the right to effective judicial protection equivalent to those provided for by EU law, the Council maintains that it cannot be criticised for having demonstrated this in the defence rather than in the statements of reasons relating to the acts at issue. In so far as the third State might regard a comment in those statements of reasons on whether or not it complies with the rights of the defence and the right to effective judicial protection as amounting to interference in its internal affairs, the reasoning required by the General Court would prevent the Council from relying on the decisions of third States. The position would be different if the Council were permitted to make its observations on the legal system of the third State concerned in its written pleadings before the Courts of the European Union, where such pleadings would be subject to a certain measure of confidentiality.
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