Access to information about planned highway construction

Green Balkans association v. Executive director of the Roads Executive Agency
Court case 882/2001 of the Sofia City Court, Administrative panel, III-B

Background facts:

In connection with the planned construction of the Struma highway, financed by the Phare Programme of the European Union, the Green Balkans Association requested in the beginning of 2001 access to documentation related to a sealed contract between the Roads Executive Agency and the Italian company SPEA Ingegneria Europea, which has been entrusted with planning the highway construction.

The preparation of plans and assessments has been funded by over 3,000,000 Euro, while the work of the Italian company has been criticized not only by NGOs, but also by the Ministry of Environment and Water. The ministry itself declared that the work done by the Italian company is insufficient, no alternatives have been offered, although additional funds have been paid to SPEA to include the assessment of possible alternatives.

No decision for disclosure of the requested information has been issued in the law-provided term.

Procedural history:

In March 2001 an appeal was filed in the Sofia town court against the mute refusal to take a decision on the information request. In a court hearing the respondent presented a letter with which the Italian company disagreed with disclosing the requested information.

With a Ruling from Oct. 30, 2001 the Sofia City Court terminated the court proceedings, determining that the appeal against the tacit refusal was prematurely filed. The ruling of the SCC was appealed before the Supreme Administrative Court and with Ruling № 7501 from 25.07.2002г. The SAC reversed the ruling of SCC and referred the file back to the first instance court.
With a decision from Jan. 28, 2003 the Sofia Town Court reversed the refusal of the Roads Executive Agency to disclose the assessment of the impact of the environment, but turned down the appeal in its other parts. This case is now pending before the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria, after an appeal was filed by the Roads Executive Agency.

Expected outcome:

Although the case is still pending, the court will inevitably have to decide whether the refusal to disclose information was lawful. We are expecting the court to interpret the limits of trade secret and its relation to the overriding public interest from information disclosure.