Ref. Ares(2019)4699104 - 19/07/2019
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR MARITIME AFFAIRS AND FISHERIES
General Affairs and Resources
Legal Affairs
Brussels,
MARE.E.4/CLV/
Mr Thomas Spekschoor
Wetstraat 155 box 92
1040 Brussels
xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents - Ref. GESTDEM 2019/4062
Dear Mr Spekschoor,
We refer to your e-mail dated 12 July 2019 in which you make a request for access to documents,
registered on 15 July 2019 under reference number Ares(2019)4548564. You request access to the
communication between the Netherlands and the European Commission on the European Fisheries
Fund (EFF) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) between 2014 and the date of
your request.
Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001 sets a time limit for the Commission services for replying to
your request. However, Article 6(3) of Regulation 1049/2001 also provides for a possibility to
confer with applicants in order to find a fair solution when an application relates to a very long
document or concerns a very large number of documents. In accordance with the case law of the EU
Courts, such a solution can only concern the content or the number of documents applied for, not
the deadline for replying1. This means that the scope of the request must be reduced in a way that
would enable its treatment within the extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days.
The regular correspondence between the Commission services dealing with EFF and EMFF and the
Netherlands contains a large variety of documents and often voluminous annexes. The documents
need to be assessed individually before they can be shared in order to respect privacy protection
legislation. Furthermore, for any documents that are not issued by the Commission, consultation of
the third parties concerned is required in accordance with Article 4(4) and 4(5) of Regulation
1049/2001. A first survey has already identified approximately 400 documents that could
potentially be subject to your current request of access to documents. Therefore, you will appreciate
that this can be a case for conferring to you for a fair solution as the analysis of these documents
and consultation cannot be expected to be completed within the normal time limits set out in Article
7 of Regulation 1049/2001
1 Judgment of the Court of Justice of 2 October 2014 in case C-127/13,
Guido Strack v Commission, paragraphs 26-
28.
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Office: J-99 05/060 ‐ Tel. direct line +32 229 87430
Based on Article 6(3) of Regulation 1049/2001, we would kindly ask you to specify the objective of
your request and your specific interest in the documents requested. In addition, you are kindly
requested to consider narrowing down the scope of your request as concerns the subject matter
and/or the timeframe covered in order be able to reply you within the deadlines set.
In order to enable us to respect the time limits of Regulation 1049/2001, we would ask you for a swift
reply to our invitation to propose a fair solution, within five working days at the latest:
by email to:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
If you have any questions concerning the invitation, you can contact us:
by email at: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
In the absence of a reply within five working days, please be aware that the Commission services will
unilaterally restrict the scope of your application to those parts that can be dealt with within the
extended deadline of 30 working days, counting from the registration of your application.
Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Yours sincerely,
Valérie TANKINK
Head of Unit
(e-signed)
2
Electronically signed on 19/07/2019 10:04 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563