Judgment_paragraph 75 · Amador Rodriguez Prieto v European Commission (T-61/18)

75As regards the continuation of the criminal proceedings after the order of no need to adjudicate by means of lodging the appeal against that order and the application for review against the judgment of the cour d’appel de Paris (Court of Appeal, Paris) of 23 June 2014 upholding that order, it should be recalled that the ability to assert one’s rights through the courts and the judicial control which that entails constitutes the expression of a general principle of law which underlies the constitutional traditions common to the Member States and which is also laid down in Articles 6 and 13 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed in Rome on 4 November 1950 (judgments of 15 May 1986, Johnston, 222/84, EU:C:1986:206, paragraphs 17 and 18, and of 17 July 1998, ITT Promedia v Commission, T‑111/96, EU:T:1998:183, paragraph 60), and by Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. As access to the courts is a fundamental right and a general principle ensuring the rule of law, it is only in wholly exceptional circumstances that the fact that legal proceedings are brought by an institution is capable of constituting a breach of administrative duty (see, to that effect, judgment of 28 September 1999, Frederiksen v Parliament, T‑48/97, EU:T:1999:175, paragraph 97).