Former Commissioner Viviane Reding and the Bertelsmann Foundation

The request was successful.

Dear Justice (JUST),

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting all documents (correspondence, including emails, notes/ minutes from any meetings etc) between former Commissioner Viviane Reding and the Bertelsmann Foundation.

Yours faithfully

Vicky Cann
CEO
Rue d'Edimbourg 26
Brx 1050

Justice and Consumers

Dear Madam,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 12/11/2014. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 13/11/2014 under reference number GestDem 2014/5380.

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 04/12/2014. 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,
JUST Access Documents team

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Justice and Consumers

Dear Madam,
We refer to your e-mail dated 12/11/2014 in which you make a request for access to documents, registered on 13/11/2014 under GestDem No 2014/5380.
Your application is currently being handled. However, we will not be in a position to complete the handling of your application within the time limit of 15 working days, which expires on 04/12/2014.
An extended time limit is needed as your application may concern documents held in different services and third parties may have to be consulted.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents. The new time limit expires on 06/01/2015.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
JUST ACCESS DOCUMENTS

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Justice and Consumers

Dear Madam,

We refer to your e-mail dated 12/11/2014 in which you make a request for access to documents, registered on 13/11/2014 under the above mentioned reference number.

Your application concerns a very large number of documents, which need to be assessed individually. Such a detailed analysis cannot be carried out within the normal time limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001.

Moreover, a significant number of documents originates from third parties. The analysis of these documents, together with the need to consult those third parties in accordance with Article 4(4) of Regulation 1049/2001, cannot be expected to be completed within the normal time limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001, even taking into account the extension of the deadline that was already communicated to you by our e-mail dated 20/11/2014.

Regulation 1049/2001 provides for a possibility to confer with applicants in order to find a fair solution when an application concerns a very large number of documents. Article 6(3) provides that "in the event of an application relating to a very long document or to very large number of documents, the institution concerned may confer with the applicant informally, with a view to finding a fair solution".

Based on this provision, we would kindly ask you whether you could narrow down the scope of your request, so as to reduce it to a more manageable amount of documents by indicating a shorter time span, instead of the 5 year period of the mandate of Vice-president Reding, or a specific subject matter for the contacts between Vice-president Reding and the Bertelsmann Foundation.

If that is not possible and if you maintain your request for access to all documents concerned by your application, we propose to handle your application in successive stages. You will receive first a list of documents found in our archives and then, at regular intervals, batches of documents which have been cleared for release or a reasoned reply explaining why some documents cannot be disclosed.

Kindly reply to this message indicating your preference by 17/12/2014.

If you have any questions concerning this proposal, you can contact us:

• by email to: [email address]

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Yours faithfully,

JUST ACCESS DOCUMENTS TEAM

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Dear Justice (JUST),

Thanks for your message. Could I receive the documents from the last two years of Commissioner Reding's mandate?

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Justice and Consumers

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Cann,

 

We refer to your request of access to documents registered under n.
GestDem 2014/5380 and to our previous e-mail of 20/11/2014.

We have completed the historical archive researches in the light of your
agreement of 20/11/2014 to limit the timeframe for your access request and
found a number of documents which fall within the scope of your
application.

 

As previously indicated, before taking any decision on their disclosure,
the Commission has to request an express authorisation of the author of
documents it has not produced, in this case Bertelsmann Foundation. We are
currently in the process of consultation both of the third party and
internally for the remaining documents.

In order to provide you with some elements on the nature of the documents
we have found, we enclose a list indicating: title, sender and date of the
correspondence extracted from the archives.

 

In this context, the more substantive reply on the disclosure is
unfortunately delayed and we have to exceptionally extend the deadline, as
this reply will have to take into account third party opinion and a number
of complex legal issues.

The new deadline for reply is on 27 January 2015.

 

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause to you and thank you for
your kind understanding.

 

Best regards,

JUST ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM

 

 

Dear Justice and Consumers,

Is there an update on this A2D? It is now long overdue.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Justice and Consumers

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Cann,
Our department replied to your request on 4th February, by sending a registered mail to the address you have indicated. We have double checked with the postal service and the mail has been delivered on 6th February (two envelopes as the delivery included several documents).
We attach here copy of the letter and the list of the documents released. We have granted access to all of them, while expunging some personal data, as you will see explained in the letter itself.
Given the volume of the correspondence, we are trying to post their electronic version to your address in ask-the-EU. However it may create some technical problems as we have experienced in the past. We will then do it by successive batches.
Yours sincerely,
JUST ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM

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Dear Justice and Consumers,

Thanks for the reply. It would be very helpful to have the documents electronically. Thanks a lot in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Justice and Consumers,

Further to your email, I have checked and we do not appear to have the documents you posted in February. I would appreciate if you could resend, especially electronically. If the Ask the EU address cannot take substantial attachments, I can provide an alternative address.

Thanks in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Justice and Consumers

7 Attachments

Dear Ms Cann,
Please find attached the electronic versions of the documents.

JUST ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM

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Klaus Zinser left an annotation ()

It seems this file is damaged: 6_7_Gestdem 2015 5380 lot6.pdf