Documents concerning SANTE and the Tobacco and Pharmaceutical industries.

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Dear Health and Food Safety,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:

Incoming and outgoing digital correspondence between SANTE (former SANCO) representatives and both Tobacco and Pharmaceutical Industry, lobbyist and lawyers between December 2012 and April 2014.

Yours faithfully,
Andra Vizureanu

Health and Food Safety

Dear Ms Vizureanu,

Thank you for your request for access to documents.

Unfortunately you have not indicated your postal address that is required for registering and handling your request in line with the procedural requirements.

Please send us your full postal address at your earliest convenience. Pending your reply, we reserve the right to refuse the registration of your request.

You may, of course, use directly the electronic form for entering your request:
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/...

Best regards,

SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

European Commission
DG Health and Food Safety (SANTE)
E-mail: [DG SANTE request email]

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Dear Health and Food Safety,

Since I have the right due to Regulation 1049/2001 to ask for the information in electronic form, I would prefer to receive information in that form.

Yours faithfully,

Andra Vizureanu

Health and Food Safety

Dear Ms Vizureanu,

With respect to your e-mail copied below, please find our explanations below.

On 1 April 2014, the postal address became a mandatory feature for the purpose of introducing a request for access to documents.

The decision to ask for a postal address from applicants for access to documents was triggered by the following considerations:

• The need to obtain legal certainty as regards the date of receipt of the reply by the applicant under Regulation 1049/2001. Indeed, as foreseen by Article 297 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), […] decisions which specify to whom they are addressed, shall be notified to those to whom they are addressed and shall take effect upon such notification. Replies triggering the possibility for administrative or judicial redress are therefore transmitted via registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt. This requires an indication of a valid postal address by the applicant;

• The need to direct the Commission's scarce resources first of all to those requests which have been filed by "real" applicants. With only a compulsory indication of an e-mail address, applicants can easily introduce requests under an invented identity or under the identity of a third person. Asking for a postal address helps the Commission to protect the administration, as well as other citizens and legal persons, from abuse;

• For similar reasons, asking for a compulsory indication of a postal address enables the Commission services to verify whether Article 6(3) of the Regulation, on voluminous requests, is being evaded by introducing several requests under different identities. Indeed, in its Ryanair judgment, the General Court confirmed that Article 6(3) cannot be evaded by splitting the application into a number of applications. The Commission would like to point out that, in 2012/2013, it received some 57 confirmatory requests from what it suspects to be one single applicant operating under 13 different identities;

• Knowing whether the applicant is an EU resident in the sense of Article 2(1) of Regulation 1049/2001 is a precondition for the purpose of correctly applying the exception in Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001 (protection of the privacy and integrity of the individual), which has to be interpreted in accordance with Data Protection Regulation 45/2001. Article 9 of Regulation 45/2001 requires the adequacy of the level of protection afforded by the third country or international organisation when transmitting personal data to third-country residents or legal persons. It follows that, in case of requests for documents which include personal data, the correct application of the data protection rules cannot be ensured in the absence of a postal address enabling the Commission to ascertain that the minimum data protection standards will be respected.

All of these considerations show that the request for and the consequent processing of a postal address is not only appropriate but also strictly necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest within the meaning of Article 5 (a) of Data Protection Regulation 45/2001, namely providing a smooth and effective access to documents.

We therefore kindly reiterate our request to you to provide a full postal address, so we can duly register and handle your request. Please note that, once we receive your postal address, we will register your request for access as an initial application for access to documents in the meaning of Article 6(1) of Regulation 1049/2001. The deadline for handling your initial request shall run as from the moment of registration of your request following the submission of your postal address.

Thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

European Commission
DG Health and Food Safety (SANTE)

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Dear Health and Food Safety,

thank you very much for the vast explanation of why my postal address is needed. I now understand the necessity of sharing my address with you.

Therefore I hereby communicate you my full postal address:

Andra Vizureanu
Brinckmannstr. 13A
40225 Düsseldorf
Germany

Yours faithfully,

Andra Vizureanu

Health and Food Safety

Dear Madam,

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the provision of a postal address dated 14/12/2015. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 15/12/2015 under reference number GestDem 2015/6579.

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application will be handled within 15 working days. The time limit will expire on 13/01/2015. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

You have lodged your application via the AsktheEU.org website. Please note that this is a private website which has no link with any institution of the European Union. Therefore the European Commission cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.

Yours faithfully,

SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

European Commission
DG Health and Food Safety (SANTE)

Health and Food Safety

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Vizureanu,

Further to your application for access to documents below, registered under the reference in subject, please find attached a request for clarification.
Yours sincerely,

Unit D4 - Substances of human origin and Tobacco control
Health and Food Safety DG (SANTE) - European Commission      
E-mail : [email address]
F101 08/58, B-1049 BRUSSELS

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