3.9. ‍‍Article 12(1) RPEBA – late-filed submissions in the review procedure

Pursuant to Art. 12(1) RPEBA the Enlarged Board may consider new submissions made by the petitioner after expiry of the time limit for filing the petition for review, if this is justified for special reasons. In R 12/10, R 4/13 and R 8/16 no such reasons were advanced by the petitioner, and the Enlarged Board rejected the late-filed submissions. In R 15/13 the Enlarged Board stated that "special reasons" could not extend to the late introduction of grounds not relied on unless or until the grounds in the petition proved insufficient. In R 4/12 and in R 16/12 the Enlarged Board said that an entirely new complaint submitted for the first time during the oral proceedings before the Enlarged Board had no bearing whatsoever on the findings as to the petition's admissibility and merits reached on the basis of the grounds, facts, arguments and evidence set out in the petition.

In R 2/08 the Enlarged Board accepted the petitioner's additional explanations in response to its communication, and in R 18/09 a late-filed external legal opinion on the admissibility of the petition.