Communication with Breakthrough Energy
Dear Research and Innovation,
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:
1) - All incoming or outgoing correspondence (including emails, sent or received) between DG Research and Innovation officials (including the Commissioner and Cabinet members) and members, employees or representatives of Breakthrough Energy Ventures and/or members, employees or representatives of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, between the 19th December 2019 and the 31st of December 2022.
2) - A list of meetings, including detailed minutes and any other reports of such meetings, between DG Research and Innovation officials (including the Commissioner and Cabinet members) and members, employees or representatives of Breakthrough Energy Ventures and/or members, employees or representatives of Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, between the 19th December 2019 and the 31st of December 2022.
Should my request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions referring to specific exemptions in the regulation. Also I expect the partial release of documents, in case of partial exemption according to article 4.6.
Do not hesitate to get back to me should you need any further information which could facilitate your research. My postal address hereby:
Hans Wetzels
Naarderstraat 153
2574PG, Den Haag
The Netherlands
Thank you for your assistance.
Yours faithfully,
Hans Wetzels / FTM
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 03/05/2023 and registered on 05/05/2023 under the case number
2023/2714.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 31/05/2023. We will let you know
if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working days.
To find more information on how we process your personal data, please see
[1]the privacy statement.
Yours faithfully,
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Sir,
We refer to your application for public access to documents enclosed
below, registered in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
(R&I) on 5 May 2023 under reference number in subject.
Your application concerns more than 50 documents to be individually
assessed, the majority of them consisting in Commission’s correspondence
with third parties and the relevant attachments.
This assessment would consist in the evaluation of their content by the
Commission in light of the exceptions of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001, consultations of third parties and multiple EU services, the
redaction of each document based on the comments received, the drafting
and approval the final decision and, finally, the preparation of the reply
and the documents for delivery, which would also potentially entail
technical complications (i.e. need to send them in batches, copy them onto
a Hard Disk, etc.).
Therefore, their individual assessment cannot be expected to be completed
within the normal time limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001. The handling of your request alone would indeed require
approximately 130 working hours. This would entail a considerable
administrative burden for our service and would appear as a
disproportionate use of public resources.
In this context, Article 6(3) of Regulation 1049/2001 provides that in the
event of an application relating to a very large number of documents, the
institution concerned may confer with the applicant informally, with a
view to find a fair solution. In this regards, please note that, in
accordance with the case law of the EU Court^[1], a fair solution can only
concern the content or the number of documents or (pages) applied for, not
the deadline for replying. This is why the scope of your requests must be
reduced in a way that would enable its treatment within the extended
deadline.
Therefore, based on the provision mentioned above, we would kindly ask you
to specify, within five working days, which of these documents you are
interested in^[2] and to narrow down the scope of your application
accordingly, so as to reduce it to a manageable number of documents.
In this regard, according to our first estimates, depending on their
length, the complexity of their assessment and taking into account the
staff resources available, approximately 25 documents from the categories
identified below could possibly be dealt with within the deadline of 30
working days set by Regulation 1049/2011 counting from the date of
registration of your application. These categories concern documents
relating to:
1. The [1]European Commission, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and EIB
advance partnership in climate technologies (around 20 incoming and
outgoing correspondence and 20 attachments);
2. The Breakthrough Energy Ventures Europe ([2]BEV-E) fund, dated
February 2021 – July 2022 (around 10 documents including correspondence
and attachments);
3. Bilateral meetings between DG R&I and representatives of
Breakthrough Energy and/or Breakthrough Energy Ventures, dated between
October 2020 and May 2022 (around 5 documents);
4. Exchanges on external events and workshops dated between November
2020 and 2021 (around 5 documents);
Please consider that in the absence of a reply, we will be forced to
unilaterally restrict the scope of your application to those parts that
can be dealt with within the deadline of 30 working days, counting from
the registration of your application.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to documents
[3]cid:image001.gif@01D640D4.CBFA20E0
European Commission
DG Research and Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
ORBN 05
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[4][DG RTD request email]
[5]https://ec.europa.eu/research
Dear Sir,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 5 May 2023 under case number 2023/2714.
We are currently working on your request. However, the application
concerns a very large number of documents and we have not yet been able
to gather all the elements necessary to carry out a full analysis of your
request. We will not be able to send you the reply within the prescribed
time limit expiring tomorrow.
Therefore, in line with Article 7(3) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
we need to extend this time limit by 15 additional working days.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to Documents
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Research and Innovation,
I am somewhat confused by the simultaneous request to restrict the scope of my application and at the same time extending the deadline already.
Reacting to your first post - I would like to restrict the scope of my application to points 1 and 2 you mention:
1. The [1]European Commission, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and EIB
advance partnership in climate technologies (around 20 incoming and
outgoing correspondence and 20 attachments);
2. The Breakthrough Energy Ventures Europe ([2]BEV-E) fund, dated
February 2021 – July 2022 (around 10 documents including correspondence
and attachments);
Yours faithfully,
Hans Wetzels
Dear Mr. Wetzels,
Thank you for your reply.
To clarify the first point, our message below concerns the extension of
the first deadline (15 to 30 working days) due to the large number of
documents concerning your request. On the other hand, our email attached
concerns the impossibility for us to treat such number of documents also
within 30 working days, which is why this time we ask you to narrow down
the scope of your request to a number of documents that we can assess
within that time limit.
In this regard, we understand from your reply that you would narrow down
the scope of your request, initially concerning more than 70 documents, to
50 in total (points 1 and 2 of the list of subject matters we identified
for all the 70 documents). However, as explained in our email attached,
the estimated number of documents that the Commission’s staff can assess
within 30 working days is 25. Therefore, we would kindly invite you to
reconsider your proposal.
To assist you, in addition to the information we provided you in our
letter attached, please note that point No. 1 (The European Commission,
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and EIB advance partnership in climate
technologies concerns both:
· The negotiations leading to the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) establishing the [1]European Commission, Breakthrough Energy
Catalyst and EIB advance partnership in climate technologies (15
attachments, including the main MoU, and 11 email exchanges) and
· Follow-up on the implementation of the EU Catalyst fund,
including the Catalyst request for proposals of January 2022 to fund
technology projects in Europe [2]EU-Catalyst Partnership: Request for
proposals of pioneering green technology projects is launched (europa.eu)
(10 email exchanges, 8 attachments).
We hope this helps in finding a fair solution for the handling of your
request.
Please reply within Thursday 8 June at 12h00 eob.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to documents
[3]cid:image001.gif@01D640D4.CBFA20E0
European Commission
DG Research and Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
ORBN 05
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[4][DG RTD request email]
[5]https://ec.europa.eu/research
Dear Mr. Wetzels,
We are writing concerning our letter of 30 May (here attached) and our
following correspondence below on the reduction of the scope of your
application.
As mentioned below, within the time limit set by Regulation 1049/2001, the
Commission can treat, depending on their length and the complexity of
their assessment, approximately 25 out of all the documents retrieved for
your request. As your reply to our letter would still concern around 50
documents to assess, we provided you with more information on the groups
of documents you selected to assist you in this decision.
However, we did not receive any another reply from you that could allow us
to agree on a solution that would be acceptable for both parties.
Therefore, in order to remain the most favorable to your right of access,
while avoiding the institution an excessive administrative burden^[^1], we
will proceed, as per settled case law^[2], to the unilateral restriction
of the scope of your request. This will consist in assessing the highest
number of documents from the points you identified as a priority which can
be treated, depending on length and complexity, within what remains of the
time-limits laid down in Regulation 1049/2001.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to documents
[1]cid:image001.gif@01D640D4.CBFA20E0
European Commission
DG Research and Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
ORBN 05
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[2][DG RTD request email]
[3]https://ec.europa.eu/research
[1] Judgment of 22 May 2021, T‑344/08, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG v
Commission, EU:T:2012:242, paragraph 105.
[2] Judgment of 15 March 2023, T-597/21, Basaglia v European Commission.
From: RTD ACCESS DOCUMENTS <[email address]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 6, 2023 3:54 PM
To: Hans Wetzels <[FOI #12942 email]>
Cc: RTD ACCESS DOCUMENTS <[email address]>
Subject: RE: access to documents request - Communication with Breakthrough
Energy
Dear Mr. Wetzels,
Thank you for your reply.
To clarify the first point, our message below concerns the extension of
the first deadline (15 to 30 working days) due to the large number of
documents concerning your request. On the other hand, our email attached
concerns the impossibility for us to treat such number of documents also
within 30 working days, which is why this time we ask you to narrow down
the scope of your request to a number of documents that we can assess
within that time limit.
In this regard, we understand from your reply that you would narrow down
the scope of your request, initially concerning more than 70 documents, to
50 in total (points 1 and 2 of the list of subject matters we identified
for all the 70 documents). However, as explained in our email attached,
the estimated number of documents that the Commission’s staff can assess
within 30 working days is 25. Therefore, we would kindly invite you to
reconsider your proposal.
To assist you, in addition to the information we provided you in our
letter attached, please note that point No. 1 (The European Commission,
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and EIB advance partnership in climate
technologies concerns both:
· The negotiations leading to the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) establishing the [4]European Commission, Breakthrough Energy
Catalyst and EIB advance partnership in climate technologies (15
attachments, including the main MoU, and 11 email exchanges) and
· Follow-up on the implementation of the EU Catalyst fund,
including the Catalyst request for proposals of January 2022 to fund
technology projects in Europe [5]EU-Catalyst Partnership: Request for
proposals of pioneering green technology projects is launched (europa.eu)
(10 email exchanges, 8 attachments).
We hope this helps in finding a fair solution for the handling of your
request.
Please reply within Thursday 8 June at 12h00 eob.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to documents
[6]cid:image001.gif@01D640D4.CBFA20E0
European Commission
DG Research and Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
ORBN 05
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[7][DG RTD request email]
[8]https://ec.europa.eu/research
Dear [email address],
Sorry for the belated reply on my side, I've been traveling. If it's still time, I kindly ask you to prioritize these of the two bullet points you sent in your earlier correspondence:
· The negotiations leading to the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) establishing the [1]European Commission, Breakthrough Energy
Catalyst and EIB advance partnership in climate technologies (15
attachments, including the main MoU, and 11 email exchanges) and
Yours sincerely,
Hans Wetzels
Dear Mr. Wetzels,
Thank you for your email below.
Our assessment concerns indeed some of the documents from the subcategory you indicate below, as they are part of those you indicated as a priority (point 1 of our solution proposal).
However, please note that, as the majority documents from point 1 (including the subcategory you indicate below) originate from third parties, we were not in a position to include them in our assessment. These entities need to be consulted on the public disclosure of their documents and correspondence and this is to guarantee the protection of their personal data and commercial interest in line with Regulation 1049/2001. Consulting them would take at least 5 ½ days to allow the third parties concerned to take an informed decision and this time exceeded what remained of the extended deadline.
Should you so wish, you can of course request the documents of your interest and left out of our unilateral restriction after you receive it, but please be aware that the approach described in our solution proposal will also apply to any future wide scope request.
Thank you again for your cooperation on the handling of your request, we will provide you with our final reply as soon as validated.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to documents
European Commission
DG Research and Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
ORBN 05
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[DG RTD request email]
