Documents on the revision of the eIDAS Regulation
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
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 including e-mails, draft reports, studies and other material on the planned revision of the eIDAS Regulation as announced by the Commission. My request includes, but is not limited to, a presentation by Commission personnel to the Council working group on telecommunications on January 7th, 2021.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
netzpolitik.org
Rue de la Loi 155
1040 Bruxelles
Belgium
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2021)1126759 - RE: access to documents request - Documents on the
revision of the eIDAS Regulation - Gestdem 2021/0605
Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG CONNECT request email]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG CONNECT request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of 9 February 2021. We hereby acknowledge
receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered
on 9 February 2021 under reference number GESTDEM 2021/0605.
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 2 March 2021. In case this time limit needs
to be extended, you will be informed in due course.
You have lodged your application via a private third-party 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.
Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the Commission.
For further information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s
privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the Commission (e.g. your private postal address).
Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.
If you do not wish that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
[6]Privacy statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (GD)
[7]cid:image001.png@01D45409.F767C980
European Commission
Secretariat-General
SG C.1
[8][email address]
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2021)1404544 - Your application for access to documents RefGestDem
2021/0605
Sent by ve_cnect.public_access_to_documents (CNECT)
<[email address]>. All responses have to be
sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_cnect.public_access_to_documents (CNECT)
<[email address]>. Toutes les réponses
doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr Fanta,
We refer to your e-mail of 9 February 2021 wherein you make a request for
access to documents pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public
access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents
(‘Regulation 1049/2001’), registered on the same day under the
above-mentioned reference number.
Your application reads as follows:
‘’Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
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 including e-mails, draft reports, studies and other
material on the planned revision of the eIDAS Regulation as announced by
the Commission. My request includes, but is not limited to, a presentation
by Commission personnel to the Council working group on telecommunications
on January 7th, 2021. [...]’’
Your application concerns a very large number of documents. At this stage,
according to our estimate more than 420 documents would fall within the
scope of your request.
Due to the scope of your request, the work needed to deal with your
application would cover the following steps:
- Individual analysis of the documents and establishment of the final and
complete list of the documents falling under the scope of your request,
- Scanning of the documents which are not in pdf format,
- Preliminary individual assessment of the content of the documents in
light of the exceptions contained in Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001,
- For many of the documents, third party consultations under Article 4(4)
and/or 4(5) of Regulation 1049/2001,
- Final assessment of the documents in light of the comments received,
- Redaction of those parts of the documents to which one or several
exceptions apply,
- Preparation and finalisation of the reply for the request,
- Preparation of the reply and the documents for dispatch.
It follows from the above that the work needed for the treatment of your
request cannot expected to be completed within the normal time limit set
out in Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001.
Article 6(3) of the Regulation 1049/2001 provides that, in the event of an
application relating to a very long or a very large number of documents,
the institution concerned may confer with the applicant informally with a
view to finding a fair solution. In accordance with the case law of the
Union Courts, the proposal for a fair solution aims to balance the
interest of the applicant against the workload resulting from the
processing of the application in order to safeguard the interests of good
administration (Judgments of 6 December 2001, Council v Hautala, Case C
353/99 P, EU:C:2001: 661, para. 30, and of 2 October 2014, Strack v
Commission, Case C 127/13 P, EU:C:2014:2250, para.27). Such solution can
only concern the content or the number of documents applied for, not the
deadline for replying (Judgment of the Court of Justice of 2 October 2014
in case C- 127/13, Guido Strack v Commission, paragraphs 26-28). 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.
Taking this into account and based on the above-mentioned provision, we
would kindly ask you to specify the objective of your request, your
specific interest in the requested documents and whether you could narrow
down the scope of your request, so as to reduce it to a more manageable
amount of documents.
In order to help you narrow down your wide scope request please note that
the following documents per requested category of documents have been
identified.
1. Back to office reports from meetings with stakeholders (including a
presentation by Commission personnel to the Council working group on
telecommunications on 7/1/2021): approximately 40 documents
2. Studies (draft reports): approximately 3 documents
3. Emails (interservice steering group comments): approximately 30
documents
4. Position papers and stakeholder feedback received through consultation
processes: approximately 350 documents
Taking into account the other ‘access to documents’ requests being handled
within DG CONNECT at the same time, the global workload of the concerned
staff during the same period, the human resources available and the need
to safeguard good administration, we consider that in the remaining
timeframe we would be able to deal with a maximum of 20 documents.
In order to enable us to respect the time limits of Regulation 1049/2001,
we would ask you for a swift response to our proposal for a fair solution.
Please respond within three working days, i.e. by 25 February 2021 eob, at
the latest.
Please send your response by email to the following address:
[6][email address]
In the absence of a reply within three working days, we 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
date of registration of your application.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
The DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
[7]cid:image001.png@01D3AF19.959C0670
European Commission
DG Connect – ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
BU25 – Avenue de Beaulieu 25
B-1160 Brussels/Belgium
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D7091F.4CC90E80
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
6. mailto:[email address]
Dear ve_cnect.public_access_to_documents (CNECT),
thank you for your reply. As per your suggestion I am happy to narrow my request and exclude from the points you mentioned number 4, position papers and stakeholder feedback received through consultation processes. I kindly ask to proceed with document from the other points mentioned.
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Fanta
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2021)1573572 - Holding reply-Your application for access to
documents RefGestDem 2021/0605
Sent by ve_cnect.public_access_to_documents (CNECT)
<[email address]>. All responses have to be
sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_cnect.public_access_to_documents (CNECT)
<[email address]>. Toutes les réponses
doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr Fanta,
We refer to your e-mail of 9 February 2021 wherein you make a request for
access to documents, registered on the same day under the above-mentioned
reference number.
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 today.
An extended time limit is needed as your application concerns a large
number of documents.
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 23 March 2021.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
[6]cid:image001.png@01D3AF19.959C0670
European Commission
DG Connect – ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
BU25 – Avenue de Beaulieu 25
B-1160 Brussels/Belgium
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D70EB6.D5DA76E0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2021)2060044 - 2nd Holding reply - Your application for access to
documents RefGestDem 2021/0605
Sent by ve_cnect.public_access_to_documents (CNECT)
<[email address]>. All responses have to be
sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_cnect.public_access_to_documents (CNECT)
<[email address]>. Toutes les réponses
doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr Fanta,
We refer to your request for access to documents introduced via email on
9/2/2021 and registered on the same day under the above-mentioned
reference number. We also refer to our holding reply sent to you on 2
March 2021 (our reference Ares(2021)1573572).
Your application is currently being handled. However, we have not been in
a position to complete the handling of your application within the time
limit, which expires today.
Please be assured that the reply is about to come.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
[6]cid:image001.png@01D3AF19.959C0670
European Commission
DG Connect – ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
BU25 – Avenue de Beaulieu 25
B-1160 Brussels/Belgium
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D7200D.35AD9130
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
*** Advanced copy by e-mail and registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt ***
Dear Mr Fanta,
Please find attached document Ares(2021)2074873 regarding "GestDem 2021/0605" sent by Mr Roberto Viola, General Director of DG CONNECT on 24/03/2021.
Best regards,
European Commission
DG CONNECT — ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Avenue de Beaulieu, 25
B-1160 Brussels/Belgium
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Documents on the revision of the eIDAS Regulation'.
The Commission argues that the disclosure of Documents 1 –25 would "seriously undermine the ongoing decision-making process" and that disclosure would "undermine the ongoing decision-making process is also reasonably foreseeable and not purely hypothetical". The decision further states that partial access is "not possible".
I would like to appeal on the grounds that there is indeed a significant public interest in the proposal. As the topic will help to guide and shape European digital policy-making over the next decade, the public should be able to see at least some of the arguments being made in regards to specifics of the proposal in due time as to be relevant to public debate. I would like to add that I make my request as journalist, therefore acting in my function as public watchdog as set out in jurisprudence by the European Court of Human Rights.
I would point out the ECJ ruling in Council v Sophie in’t Veld, C-350/12 P, in which the court states that an institution, in principle, must first "explain how disclosure of that document could specifically and actually undermine the interest protected by the exception". However, in this case the Commission has only given general statements and did not, explain how "specifically and actually" the disclosure would hurt the decision-making process. I would also like to point out the European Ombudsman finding in case 2781/2008/(TS) FOR, that in many cases EU bodies have offered insufficient reasoning for a refusal when it was grounded on the protection of the decision-making process, which in the opinion of the Ombudsman constitutes maladministration. I ask the Commission to review the documents in question to see whether at least partial access be granted and, if not, spell out how specifically disclosure would be to the detriment of ongoing decision making.
As regards to the commercial interests argued to prevent disclosure of Documents 4 -8, the European Ombudsman likewise found that in many cases there was insufficient reasoning of the refusal (cases 676/2008/RT 07; 181/2013/AN 16). The register of documents in question shows that some of the documents pertain to meetings that must be seen as lobbying by Facebook and other companies, which should further lower the bar for their disclosure as it clearly is in the interest of transparency to make them available.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
netzpolitik.org
Rue de la Loi 155
1040 Bruxelles
[1]Ares(2021)2078616 - RE: Internal review of access to documents request
- Documents on the revision of the eIDAS Regulation
Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG CONNECT request email]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG CONNECT request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your email dated 24/03/2021 by which you request, pursuant
to Regulation No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,
Council and Commission documents, a review of the position taken by DG
CNECT in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2021/605.
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents which was registered on 24/03/2021 (Ares(2021)2078529).
Your application will be handled within 15 working days (19/04/2021). In
case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due
course.
Please be informed that the answer to your confirmatory application is a
formal Commission decision that will be notified to you by express
delivery. Thank you for providing your contact phone number, so that the
external delivery service can contact you in case of absence.
Please note that the Commission will not use your phone number for any
other purpose than for informing the delivery service, and that it will
delete it immediately thereafter.
Yours faithfully,
Access to documents team (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2021)2635037 - Your confirmatory application for access to
documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - GESTDEM 2021/605 - 1st
holding letter
Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG CONNECT request email]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG CONNECT request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr Fanta,
I refer to your email of 24 March 2021, registered on the same day, by
which you submit a confirmatory application in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents ("Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001"), registered under reference number above.
Your confirmatory application is currently being handled. Unfortunately,
we have not yet been able to gather all the elements needed to carry out a
full analysis of your request and to take a final decision. Therefore, we
are not in a position to reply to your confirmatory request within the
prescribed time limit which expires on 19 April 2021.
Consequently, we have to extend this period by another 15 working days in
accordance with Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. The new
deadline expires on 10 May 2021.
However, I can assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide you with
a final reply within the next 15 working days.
I regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
María OLIVÁN AVILÉS
Head of Unit
European Commission
Secretariat General
SG.C.1 (Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents)
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D735C1.8A75DFA0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...