Judgment_paragraph 41 · Ryanair DAC and Airport Marketing Services Ltd v European Commission (C-758/21 P)

41As regards the provisions of the former Rules of Procedure of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities of 2 May 1991 (OJ 1991 L 136, p. 1), which are analogous to the basic rules which now appear in Article 76(f) and Article 85(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the General Court currently in force, the Court of Justice has observed that those provisions, which determine the stage of the proceedings at which the evidence offered must be produced, take into account the principles of adversarial proceedings and equality of arms and the right to a fair trial, in the interests of the sound administration of justice. In that they require the parties to make known the evidence and offers of evidence as soon as they lodge an application or the defence, their purpose is to ensure that the other parties are informed of the evidence lodged in support of the arguments put forward and to enable them to prepare an effective defence or reply, in accordance with those principles and the right to a fair trial. The Court of Justice has also held that the lodging of evidence and offers of evidence in the initial stage of the proceedings is also justified by the need to ensure the sound administration of justice, inasmuch as it enables the case file to be prepared swiftly and the case to be dealt with expeditiously (see, to that effect, judgment of 14 April 2005, Gaki-Kakouri v Court of Justice, C‑243/04 P, EU:C:2005:238, paragraph 30).