Balancing privacy and access in European law [Invited Oral Presentation]

Two recent decisions of the European Court of Justice, Bavarian Lager v Commission1 (“Bavarian Lager”) and Schenck and Eifert v Commission2 (“Farm Subsidies”) appear, at first sight, to express a preference for the protection of information privacy over the recognition of a right of access. These decisions will be scrutinized in order to judge the extent to which this is, in fact, the case and an approach to the balancing of the right to information privacy against the right of access, based on the application of European human rights norms, will be proposed. The paper will start by sketching the European legal framework for the protection of personal information and for the provision of access to information at both domestic and international levels. The protection afforded by access to information measures to the privacy of personal information of third parties will be highlighted. The paper will then discuss the balancing of privacy and access rights in the context of two decisions of the European Court of Justice referred to.