Contacts of Mrs Viviane Reding, Mr Thierry Cretin and Mr Paul Nemitz with OLAF in respect of alleged fraud at DIHR expanded to FRA Vienna
Dear Secretariat General (SG),
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 correspondence, minutes and logs of phone calls between Mrs Viviane Reding, Mr Paul Nemitz, and previous Director of OLAF - Mr Thiery Cretin, now a subordinate of Mrs Reding http://ec.europa.eu/justice/about/files/... and OLAF in respect of alleged fraud in accounts of Danish Institute for Human Rights, fraud which was announced on 16 January 2012.
2. Information if on the date of this letter http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r... Ms Viviane Reding was aware about the reported fraud in accounts of DIHR, which is a big beneficiary of grants from European Commission and FRA Vienna
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/reque...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/full_... (millions of euro).
I also request information on who attended that meeting in Copenhagen ref. in Mrs Reding`s letter to Danish authorities and if the alleged fraud was discussed.
3. Information on the 4 cases opened&closed by OLAF at FRA and the content of the findings (Reports). As can be observed in OLAF letter published under this website http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/453/r..., 2 of the 4 cases were opened and closed under the tenure of Mr Tierry Cretin (currently working in Ms Viviane Reding Cabinet).
I request details if Mrs Reding was informed about the situation existing at FRA and if there was a scrutiniy on what happens there (if OLAF findings ref. to 4 FRA cases, were brought into attention of Ms Viviane Reding for follow up, recommendations or similar). For identification of the completely strange situation for an EU Fundamental Rights Agency (under responsibility of Mrs Reding) please refer to Postings of Kurt Weiss and also to this ones http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fra_d... and http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fra_d... .
4. I request access to Evaluation Report and its annexes for the contract awarded to DIHR in 2013. Contract to DIHR is identified at position 29 (amount Euro 200.030,71)Details here http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/fil... and here
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/reque...
5. I request info if finally the EU Fundamental Rights Charter was transposed in rimes (poems) or Ms Reding finally managed to stop that contract, taking view that the FRA is independent EU body. Details here http://euobserver.com/justice/29798 .
6. Details on the "atmosphere of fear" identified at FRA and mentioned by judges in Allgeier case F-58/10.
Yours faithfully,
David Nicholson
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of today.
This request contains:
Ø Requests for access to documents dealt by the Directorate General for
Justice (DG JUST) – points 1 and 4;
Ø Requests for information concerning DG JUST – points 2, 5 and 6;
Ø Request for information concerning OLAF – point 3.
In order to avoid to mix such different requests, you e-mail has been
forwarded to DG JUST and to OLAF in order to let each of them register
what has to be and answer to your requests for information.
Sincerely yours,
Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency
Dear Mr David Nicholson,
Thank you for your letter of 20 June 2013 (GESTDEM n° 2013/3361) applying
for a copy of documents in accordance with Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001 -
OJ L145 of 31.05.2001, p 43 - regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
Your application will be dealt with as quickly as possible. However, it
requires collecting information from different Commission departments. We
have therefore decided to extend the prescribed period by another of 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 2/08/2013. We apologize for this delay.
Yours faithfully,
Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
Dear Mr Nicholson,
I refer to your email of 20 June 2013 which was addressed to the Secretariat General of the European Commission requesting access to information and documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. Your request under point 3 was attributed to OLAF.
Your application will be dealt with as quickly as possible. However, in view of the complexity of your request we have to extend the prescribed period by another of 15 working days before you receive a reply.
Kind regards,
On behalf of Martin Wasmeier,
Head of the Legal Advice Unit in OLAF
Dear Sir,
Please find attached the reply to your e-mail of 20/06/2013, in which you
make a request to access documents.
With kind regards,
The Progress Team
Dear Sir,
Please also find attached the evaluation report referring to your by
e-mail request of access to documents of 20/06/2013.
Regards,
The Progress Team
Dear Mr Nicholson,
Thank you for your email sent on 20 June 2013. A holding reply was sent to
you on 15 July. Below you will find our reply to your requests for access
to documents and information.
Point 1
Upon receipt your request we checked whether there was any such
correspondence or records of any such contacts relating to alleged fraud
in the accounts of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, between Vice
President Viviane Reding and European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Mr Paul
Nemitz and OLAF, and Mr Thierry Cretin and OLAF. Nothing showed up,
therefore, as far as we can be aware, there are no such documents on
correspondence or contacts. We are thus not able to send any documents
under this point of your request.
Point 2
The purpose of the letter sent by Vice President Reding to Mr Bødskov,
Minister of Justice for Denmark, was to reply to his invitation to take
part in an event co-organised by the Danish EU Presidency and the European
Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). We are not in a position to trace
back if Vice-President Reding had positive knowledge of alleged fraud in
the accounts of Danish Institute for Human Right at the time of the letter
dated 2 February 2012.
The Director for Fundamental rights and Union citizenship, Mr. Paul
Nemitz, attended for the Commission the seminar co-organised by the Danish
EU Presidency and FRA on "Bringing the Charter to life – opportunities and
challenges of putting the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into practice",
that took place on 15-16 March 2012 in Copenhagen. He was accompanied by a
staff member of his Directorate.
Point 3
OLAF will send a separate reply to your request for access to document. A
holding reply was sent by OLAF on 16 July. I would like to clarify that
Mr Thierry Cretin is Director for the Shared Resources Directorate of DG
Home affairs and DG Justice (he is thus not working in the Cabinet of Ms
Viviane Reding).
Point 4
A separate reply will be sent to you as regards this request for access to
documents.
Point 5 & 6
The questions you raise concern internal matters of FRA, which is
independent from the Commission. The Commission bears no responsibility
for the daily management of the tasks of the Agency.
Yours faithfully,
Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
E-mail: [1][email address]
Dear Secretariat General (SG),
In the European Commission Evaluation Report available at http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/563/r...
it is written that “Documentation and Advisory Center on Racial Discrimination Denmark” was excluded from a grant procedure of around 4 000 000 euro for the following reason:
“Annex 8 does not include Statues and proof of VAT”
I request access to the letter of EC Evaluation Committee, asking the Danish Center on Racial Discrimination Denmark to produce these documents (as a possibility provided by procurement rules and procurement jurisprudence). As you know, the court established in its decision in Case T 195/08 that it would be contrary to the requirements of sound administration for the Commission to reject a tender in such circumstances like the one mentioned above (“Annex 8 does not include Statues and proof of VAT” ) without exercising its power to seek clarification. I request access to any document showing the exercise by EC of power to seek clarification during the grant procedure.
I ask access to this document in light of Equal Treatment principle applicable to grant procedures.
There were financial problems reported by Danish authorities for the Competitor of Documentation and Advisory Center on Racial Discrimination Denmark. As you know, this Competitor is Danish Institute for Human Rights, a winner of an EC grant around 200 000 euros. The financial problems of DIHR are accessible at http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-... and in several links available in internet.
In light of the above, I request access to the Statues and VAT proof of Danish Institute for Human Rights.
In Evaluation Report, section financial capacity there is a Currency not disclosed. I request access to that piece of information. I believe that the currency is not an piece of information to be covered by exceptions listed in Regulation 1049/2001.
Finally I request access to information related to application of equal treatment in respect of the two Applicants from Denmark:
- “Documentation and Advisory Center on Racial Discrimination Denmark” (which apparently was excluded in a very easy way)
- “Danish Institute for Human Rights” (which was admitted to competition and awarded a grant of 200000 euro, in conditions of some financial problems not fully clarified even now http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/decla... http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/grant... )
Yours faithfully,
David Nicholson
Dear Mr Nicholson,
Your request for access to documents has been attributed the reference
Gestdem 2013/4378. It refers to the call for proposals
JUST/2012/PROG/AG/AD, which was launched and evaluated under the Financial
Regulation 1605/2002.
Please note that this is a call for action grants and not a call for
tenders. For this reason the rules for grants apply to this procedure and
not the rules for public procurement. The judgement referred to in your
e-mail concerns public procurement and is therefore not automatically
applicable in this case.
The eligibility rules are defined in the call for proposals
([1]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/fil...).
More concretely, Section 5.2, criterion 2 reads:
2) The grant application must be submitted on the standard form together
with the duly completed annexes and documents of proofs required for this
call for proposals;
Following the first deadline of this call an addendum was published on the
website
([2]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/fil...),
which extended the deadline of the call and gave additional, more detailed
information about the necessary documents that had to be submitted (see
Annex 1 of this Addendum). In order to ensure transparency and equal
treatment this document was published on the call's website. The Addendum
specifies that:
Please note that even if you have already submitted an application, it
will only be declared eligible if ALL required Annexes were included and
were fully compliant with the requested formalities of the call.
All applicants were informed per e-mail about the publication of this
document and were requested to read it carefully and take action, if
necessary, in order to complete their proposal.
Following the clarifications given in this Addendum (see respective text
concerning Annex 8) the Evaluation Committee proceeded with the
eligibility check against the eligibility criteria published in the call.
No applicant was contacted individually.
The Documentation and Advisory Center on Racial Discrimination was
declared ineligible in this phase of the evaluation for failing to comply
with eligibility criterion 5.2.2. (Annex 8 does not include statutes and
proof of VAT). The Documentation and Advisory Center on Racial
Discrimination is considered to be a private entity and the amount it
requested under this call was EUR 52,000.00.
The Danish Institute for Human Rights was declared eligible in this phase
of the procedure. The Danish Institute for Human Rights was treated as a
public entity and on these grounds it did not have to submit Annex 8 (see
specific provision in the Call for proposals and in the Addendum). These
documents were not submitted with their proposal.
Regarding your additional question on the evaluation report section
financial capacity, the text marked in black does not show a currency, but
the application numbers of those applicants whose financial capacity was
evaluated as weak. The reasons for not disclosing this information are
included in our letter of 07.08.2013.
We hope that these explanations respond to all your questions.
Best regards,
The JUST Progress Team
Dear Mr Nicholson,
Please find attached a note from our Head of Unit Mr Martin Wasmeier for
your information.
Best regards,
[1]cid:image001.png@01CE1437.0F722A20
European Commission
DG OLAF
Unit C.4- Legal advice
Head of Unit
References
Visible links
Dear Mr Nicholson,
Please find attached document Ares(2013)3434709 regarding "Your access to information request of 20 June 2013" sent by Mr WASMEIER, Head of Unit C.4 (OLAF) on 07/11/2013.
Best regards
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