The non-voting role of FRA Staff Committee representative on the Recruitment Panel

Waiting for an internal review by European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights of their handling of this request.

Dear European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

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:

All documents and information showing that the unsigned document which FRA disclosed on 21 August 2013, called “The role of the Staff Committee representative on the Recruitment Panel “ under this link http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/722/r... is an authentic / valid document.

1. The document disclosed appears to be an unfinished draft. I request information and / or documents showing that this is a final valid document, approved by FRA management.

2. The document has no signature. I request information and / or documents showing whether the document was signed & approved and the names and functions of the signatories. Also I request information about the date when the signatures were given by representatives of Staff Committee.

3. The document has no registration number. I request access to documents containing this information ref. registration number (i.e. FRA Register containing the decision and its number on non-voting role of FRA staff committee)

This unsigned document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/722/r... shows that FRA Staff Committee did not vote in Recruitments Panel as requested by Staff Regulation and FRA Rules available in FRA website. At one unidentified point of time FRA Staff Committee decided to vote, as FRA declared on its Reply dated 21 August 2013.
The FRA stated:

“Since then the Staff Committee has decided that it will in the future participate as
full members in selection committees”.

4. I request access to the Decision approved by FRA stating that from that unidentified date on FRA Staff Committee will vote. Which is that date when ““Staff Committee has decided that it will in the future participate as full members in selection committees”” ? Which is the relevant year when the decision entered into force : 2012 or 2013?

5. Finally I request access to FRA legal basis on non-voting role of Staff Committee until that identified point of time declared by FRA in its Reply 2013.

I consider that exceptions listed under article 4 of Regulation do not apply to staff of EU institution (privacy issues) but if FRA consider necessary, I agree to have a access to anonymous versions of documents in respect of names. In order to give a bit of hand I suggest to use for names, abbreviations like “Staff committee member 1”; “Staff committee member 2”; “Staff committee member 3”. Similar approach could be used for FRA hierarchy if there is a reason to protect the names of FRA representatives. (EUMC representative 1, 2, etc FRA representative 1, 2, etc)

Would be possible to know if this EUMC document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/722/r... disclosed by FRA in 21 August 2013 is still applicable at FRA or was repealed and replaced with an updated decision by FRA?

I would appreciate if FRA would share its opinion on the effect of non-voting role of FRA Staff committee against FRA staff members, until the moment FRA decided to align itself with the requirements of EU Staff Regulation. As presented above FRA stated: “Since then the Staff Committee has decided that it will in the future participate as full members in selection committees”.

What happens with the affected staff members who did not have a chance to enjoy the provision of EU Law, i.e. relevant provisions of EU Staff Regulation on mandatory voting role of Staff Committee in Recruitments Panels?
How FRA would comment this aspect?

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

1 Attachment

To the attention of:

Ms Cornelia Trentea

www.asktheeu.org

Vienna, 12 September 2013

2013-outgoing-001505

 

Subject:         Your request of access to documents registered under
reference number 2013-incoming-001472

 

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

Thank you for your request for access to documents received on 22 August
2013 and registered under reference number 2013-incoming-001472. 

 

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 12/09/2013 due to complexity of
your request, high volume of data to be examined and limited human
resources at the Agency’s disposal. 

 

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 03/10/2013.

 

We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.   

 

Yours sincerely,

 

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]

Visit us on: [1]http://fra.europa.eu | [2]Facebook | [3]Twitter |
[4]YouTube | [5]LinkedIn

Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European
Union

FRA online toolkit to help connect public officials at all levels,
[6]available 25 September. 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.fra.europa.eu/
2. http://www.facebook.com/fundamentalrights
3. http://twitter.com/#!/EURightsAgency
4. http://youtube.com/user/EUAgencyFRA
5. http://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-funda...
6. http://fra.europa.eu/en/project/2011/joi...

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

1 Attachment

To the attention of:

Ms Cornelia Trentea

www.asktheeu.org

Vienna, 04 October 2013

2013-outgoing-001627

 

Subject:         Your request of access to documents registered under
reference number 2013-incoming-001472

 

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

Thank you for your request for access to documents received on 22 August
2013 and registered under reference number 2013-incoming-001472. 

 

The outcome of internal review of your request related to access to
documents you may find herewith. Please note that questions that fall
outside the scope of an access to documents request under Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 will not be answered.

 

We observed that your application registered under reference number
2013-incoming-001472 is indeed a confirmatory application submitted in
respect to the request for access to documents registered under reference
number 2013-incoming-001278 and is available under following link:

[1]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fra_r...

 

In the light of the above, we would like to reiterate the information
already provided to you under the initial request number
2013-incoming-001278 and its confirmatory application submitted on 21
August and its amendment of 22 August.

 

The documents that we were able to identify based on the information
provided, you may find under following link:

[2]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fra_r...

 

In addition, please kindly submit any future requests for access to
documents directly to FRA using the form available online at:

[3]http://fra.europa.eu/en/about-fra/regist...

 

Yours sincerely,

 

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]

Visit us on: [4]http://fra.europa.eu | [5]Facebook | [6]Twitter |
[7]YouTube | [8]LinkedIn

Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European
Union

FRA survey of Jewish people’s experiences and perceptions of hate crime,
discrimination and antisemitism: [9]Results available 8 November

References

Visible links
1. http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fra_r...
2. http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fra_r...
3. http://fra.europa.eu/en/about-fra/regist...
4. http://www.fra.europa.eu/
5. http://www.facebook.com/fundamentalrights
6. http://twitter.com/#!/EURightsAgency
7. http://youtube.com/user/EUAgencyFRA
8. http://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-funda...
9. http://fra.europa.eu/en/event/2013/fra-p...

Dear European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights's handling of my FOI request 'The non-voting role of FRA Staff Committee representative on the Recruitment Panel'.

In my Initial application there are any questions that fall outside the scope of an access to documents request under Regulation (EC No 1049/2001). All information I requested are attached to documents requested. Please consult a specialist for a second informed opinion and upon that consultation please review your decision by granting access to all information attached to documents (as I requested in my initial application).

My application registered under reference number “2013-incoming-001472” is an “Initial Application” and this is evident form the separate submission with different name, i.e. “The non-voting role of FRA Staff Committee representative on the Recruitment Panel”.
I would like to ask you to treat it as such and not to link it to the confirmatory application under reference number 2013-incoming-001278, which is a different issue, because this linking is confusing and misleading for one that reads your submissions and will create confusions in case of any further review at later stages.

Therefore I kindly request you:

1. Please clarify the nature of this document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/722/r...

a. Is it an e-mail, as you mentioned in one other Reply available here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fra_r... ? If it is an email, which is the type of software that generated such an atypical email? Which are the “date and time of sending” by Staff Committee and “date and time of receiving” by FRA staff? Could be the number of recipients identified and disclosed in an anonimized way?

b. Is it a word draft which was sent accompanied by an email to FRA staff? If this is the case, I request access to the real/genuine e-mail accompanying this draft http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/722/r...
and to the rest of information contained in it: dates of receiving, redacted names, other usual information contained by an email.

c. If it is not any of the two cases a) and b) above, please provide additional information on the nature of that document, because if one look closely to that document can easily observe that the document disclosed to public domain http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/722/r... appears to be an unfinished draft, has no signature, and has no registration number. Moreover, if it is an email as you claim in your response of 04.10.2013, it appears that the respective e-mail was tampered and therefore there is no guarantee that FRA disclosed to the public domain a genuine document. Such emails cannot be issued by currently existing software on the IT world market. This is why I question it as it appears that lot of features of an normal usual email has been removed and now the document looks like a word draft but in no way as an email.

d. The Regulation 1049/2001 permit to disclose documents in partial form by protecting the names, but the document you disclosed and call it “email of Staff committee” appears to be heavily altered. Therefore in line with provisions of Regulation 1049/2001 I kindly invite you to provide full explanations on that so called “email of Staff committee”.

This atypical and questionable e-mail is already at large in public domain, we cannot switch the communication channel as you recommend me (using a confidential channel provided by FRA for this purpose). I respectfully request you to provide all necessary information as to the provenance, reliability and non-tampered character of that e-mail/word document or other form.

2. This is all the more necessary to be done via this channel we use now as the FRA started already to reply via this internet site called “AskTheEU”, and additionally FRA is entrusted as a watchdog of transparency principle, access to documents and other fundamental rights. If FRA wants now to switch the channel it raises legitimate questions ("why?").

Finally I would like kindly to ask you to interpret relevant jurisprudence accurately and in the given context. For instance there are well established case law according to which information can be provided if they are attached to a document.

This is exactly the case here. In my requests, there are no questions that fall outside the scope of Regulation 1049/2001, as you claimed in your reply above and unjustifiably refused my request to access information attached to this document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/722/r... .
Thank you.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/the_n...

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Dear EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA),

This is a reminder related to my Request dated 08.10.2013 to access documents and attached information to those documents
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/771/r... .

Yours sincerely,

Cornelia Trentea

Dear European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights's handling of my FOI request 'The non-voting role of FRA Staff Committee representative on the Recruitment Panel'.

As my request did not benefit until now of any reply to my confirmatory application, inserted here under this website, on 1.12.2013 I sent one additional Confirmatory application via FRA Website. The FRA system generated this Confirmation http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...

There is no possibility to see the date, content or at lease subject of Confirmatory application. The automatic email dated 01.12.2013 submitted by FRA reads as follows:

"Dear Sir / Madam,
Your application for access to documents has been received by FRA. We will contact you in the coming days with further information related to the handling of your request.
Kind regards,
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights"

I would like to request that my Confirmatory application is dealt by counting the initial date of lodging the confirmatory application via this website (counting for the purposes of delivery of an Answer).

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/the_n...

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights

1 Attachment

Cornelia Trentea submitted this confirmatory application through FRA´s
platform on the 01/12/2013.