On 3 June 2009, the Higher Administrative Court of Schleswig-Holstein ruled in three summary proceedings that the publication of agricultural subsidies on the internet is permissible if the names of the recipients are mentioned.
Under EU law, EU subsidies in the agricultural sector are to be published on the internet with the name of the beneficiary, the place of residence or holding and the amount of the payment. The purpose of the publication is to increase transparency with regard to the use of budgetary funds and to improve sound financial management.
The Administrative Court had temporarily halted a publication of the data planned for the end of April 2009, expressing considerable reservations about publication on the internet in particular and about the competence of the EU Commission to regulate publication.
The 2nd Senate of the Higher Administrative Court does not share these concerns and states in the order that the publication is compatible with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to protection of business data guaranteed under Community law. Although the publication interfered with the rights of the applicants, this interference was justified in view of the objective pursued. The publication did not cause serious harm to the applicants. There were no legal objections to the fact that the European legislature, when weighing the conflicting interests, had given preference to the interest in transparency of payments from budgetary funds over the interests in their secrecy. Moreover, the planned form of publication on the internet was not associated with a stronger encroachment on fundamental rights than another form of publication. The European Commission had also been authorised to regulate publication on the internet, since the relevant regulation merely served to implement a regulation of the EU Council in which the principles of publication were regulated. It was therefore not necessary to issue the interim injunction sought by the applicants to temporarily prevent the publication of the data.
The decisions are final (Ref: 2 MB 7/09, 2 MB 8/09, 2 MB 9/09).
Source: Press release of the OVG Schleswig-Holstein
Goldberg Attorneys at Law
Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M. (Information Law)
Specialist lawyer for information technology law
E-mail: info@goldberg.de
