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Amending rules of procedure is not an exercise that is normally associated with considerable excitement. The case of the recently amended rules for the General Court of the European Union is an exception. They provide for a new procedure about confidential information which a party to a dispute does not wish to share with other parties. This provision has not yet entered into force, as its application is contingent on the adoption of a decision by the General Court on the protection of confidential information or material produced by the parties.
The new procedure, laid down in art.105 of the new Rules, is introduced against the background of Kadi II and the growing body of case-law which subjects EU measures freezing assets of individuals to intense judicial scrutiny. The procedure applies to information or material which, according to a party, "would harm the security of the Union or that of one or more of its Member States or the conduct of their international relations! (art.105(1)). The party may apply to the General Court for confidential treatment and explain "the overriding reasons which, to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, justify" such treatment. The General Court examines this application on the basis of its relevance to the case and its confidential nature vis-à-vis the other main party (to which the relevant information is not communicated during this assessment).
Article 105 envisages two possibilities. First, the General Court may decide that the material in question is relevant to the case but not confidential (art.105(4)). In this case, it shall ask the party concerned to authorize the communication of that information to the other main party. The President of the General Court prescribes a period within which the former may object to the communication or fail to reply. If either happened, the Court would not take the relevant information into account in the determination of the case.
