Judgment_paragraph 73 · Carina Skareby v European External Action Service (T-585/16)

73In that regard, it is sufficient to observe that, contrary to what the applicant claims, the decision rejecting the complaint at no point confuses the two concepts of the ‘general public interest’ and the ‘legitimate interests of the Union’. As is apparent from the passage reproduced below, the decision rejecting the complaint merely indicates that the protection of the ‘interests of the European Union’ is one of a number of objectives of ‘general public interest’:‘As the Court qualified it, Article 17a [of the Staff Regulations] therefore constitutes the permanent search to find the right balance between the guaranteed exercise of the fundamental right, e.g., the freedom of expression, and the protection of an objective of general public interest, e.g., the protection against the potential prejudice to the interests of the European Union to which publication of the relevant text may give rise [Case T‑82/99, Cwik v Commission, EU:T:2000:193, paragraph 52, and Case C‑340/00 P, Commission v Cwik, EU:C:2001:701, paragraph 19].’