Documents produced in cases C-156/21 and C-157/21
Dear Legal Service,
On 16 February 2022, the Court of Justice delivered its judgments in cases Hungary v Parliament and Council (C-156/21) and Poland v Parliament and Council (C-157/21).
The Commission was granted leave to intervene in these cases. As a result, it is in possession of all relevant documents produced by the Court and the parties to these proceedings.
Therefore, with regard to the mentioned cases, on the basis of the second sentence of Article 11(1) and Article 42 of the Charter, and Article 2(1) of the Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting:
— the main applications lodged by Hungary and Poland;
— any document produced by the Court or the President of the Court, such as decisions and orders;
— any document produced by the Commission and other parties or interveners, such as applications, letters and written observations.
I am also requesting that these documents be sent in their original language, and also in English if the Commission has a translation in that language.
Please send the requested documents via e-mail. In order to comply the requirements, I also provide my postal address:
Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju - FOR
ul. Ignacego Krasickiego 9A
02-628 Warszawa (Poland)
Yours faithfully,
Patryk Wachowiec
Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju - FOR
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Your request for Access to Documents - Fair Solution Proposal -
Ares(2022)2616490 (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)
Dear Mr Wachowiec,
We refer to your e-mail of 21 March 2022, by which you make a request for
access to documents.
Documents requested
Your request concerns submissions in the following Cases:
Ø C-156/21, Hungary v Parliament and Council
Ø C-157/21, Poland v Parliament and Council
- the main applications lodged by Hungary and Poland;
- any document produced by the Court or the President of the Court,
such as decisions and orders;
- any document produced by the Commission and other parties or
interveners, such as applications, letters and written observations.
You request that these documents are sent to you in their original
language, as well as in English if the Commission has a translation in
that language. Please note that the Commission only holds a French
translation of the requested documents.
Documents concerned, assessment of documents and consultation of third
parties
The Legal Service has established a list of the documents concerned by
your request. The total number of documents requested is 25, 2 of which
the Commission is the author while the remaining 23 originate from third
parties.
Please note that regarding the Commission’s documents (2 documents), the
Commission’s Legal Service has to carry out a concrete assessment of them
before taking the decision of granting / refusing access. This is to
guarantee that they can actually be disclosed and do not contain any
information that should be covered by any of the exceptions of Regulation
1049/2001, despite the fact that these cases are no longer pending before
the Court.
With regard to the documents originating from third parties (23
documents), the Commission has to consult these parties according to
Article 4(4) of Regulation 1049/2001, which provides that the institution
shall consult the third parties with a view to assessing whether an
exception in paragraph 1 of 2 is applicable. Therefore, the Legal Service
will carry out the consultation procedure setting a deadline of 10 working
days, in order for the third parties concerned to communicate the
conclusions of their assessments. This consultation period, adds an
additional administrative step to the handling of your request.
Once the process of consultation is concluded, the Legal Service will have
to proceed to a final assessment of the documents in the light of the
comments received and, where necessary, to redact the parts of the
documents to which one or several exceptions apply. Finally, it will have
to draft the reply, submit it for review and approval by the competent
persons and prepare the reply as well as the documents for electronic
dispatch.
Fair solution proposal
Due to the large number of documents concerned by your request, the
above-stated consultation process and the procedure following it, the
Legal Service will be unable to provide you with a reply within the time
limit set by Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001. In this respect, please
also note that the Commission cannot privilege one applicant and has to
guarantee that all the requests are dealt with within the deadlines of
Regulation 1049/2001 or, where not possible – as in the present case – to
seek a fair solution in conformity with Article 6(3) that reconciles the
interests of the applicant with those of good administration.
In accordance with the case-law of the EU Courts, a fair solution can only
concern the content or the number of documents applied for, not the
deadline for replying (judgment of 2 October 2014 in Case C-127/13, Guido
Strack v. Commission, EU:C:2014:2250, paragraphs 26-28). This means that
the scope of your request must be narrowed down in a way that would enable
its treatment within the extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days from
the date or registration of your request.
In view of the foregoing, we would like to propose a fair solution that
enables us to reconcile your interest with the principle of good
administration and without prejudice to other applicants’ requests.
The Legal Service considers that it would be in a position to deal within
the extended deadline with the documents relating to one of the cases,
namely:
- Case C-156/21, Hungary v Parliament and Council (13 documents);
OR
- Case C-157/21, Poland v Parliament and Council (12 documents).
Kindly send your agreement to this proposal indicating which case you
would like us to deal with to the following email address:
[6][SJ request email].
The Legal Service will proceed dealing with the relevant request upon
receiving your agreement and the deadline will start running accordingly.
Once the Commission has sent you its reply, you may certainly file a new
request for access.
Kindly note that the "AsktheEU.org" website is a private 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. Hence, the European Commission
is not responsible for any possible processing of personal data by the
private organisation running the AsktheEU.org website, through which you
have channeled your request. Please refer to their privacy policy.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents team
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D849BF.A7051920
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
6. mailto:[SJ request email]
Dear Access to Documents Team,
I refer to your response of 6 April 2022 to my request for access to documents, registered under reference number Ares(2022)2616490, concerning submissions in cases:
— C-156/21, Hungary v Parliament and Council;
— C-157/21, Poland v Parliament and Council.
According to the response, the Legal Service had identified 25 documents, including 23 originating from third parties. The Legal Service had also noted that it only held a French translation of the requested documents.
Moreover, the Legal Service put forward a fair solution proposal under which it would be able to deal, within the extended deadline set by the regulation 1049/2001, with regard to the documents relating to one of the mentioned cases.
In response to that proposal, please consider the following.
From my point of view, the documents from both cases (C-156/21 and C-157/21) are needed for scientific and NGO-related purposes. These documents relate to legal actions against the same regulation and were considered by the Court of Justice jointly at the same hearing. Additionally, the opinions of Advocate General and the judgments in these cases were both delivered on the same day. It follows from the foregoing that, in order to make use of my right to receive information effectively, only documents related to both cases are relevant.
Consequently, in order to have access to all documents, I am able to voluntarily waive my right to receive information (and, as a result, my right to challenge the Legal Service’s failure to act within the prescribed time), beyond the extended deadline. I would like to propose that the Legal Service deal with my request within additional 15 working days from the date of its registration, which would amount to 15 + 15 + 15 (=45) working days.
Additionally, in order to clarify my request in the light of the mentioned response, I would like to request all of these documents both in their original language and in French, as the Legal Service does not have them in English.
I hope the Legal Service will consider my proposal as reasonable.
Sincerely,
Patryk Wachowiec
[1]Your request for Access to Documents - Fair Solution Proposal -
Ares(2022)2790076 (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)
Dear Mr Wachowiec,
Thank you for your reply. In response to your proposal to deal with your
request, please note that, as already explained in our email below, in
accordance with the case-law of the EU Courts, a fair solution can only
concern the content or the number of documents applied for, not the
deadline for replying (judgment of 2 October 2014 in Case C-127/13, Guido
Strack v. Commission, EU:C:2014:2250, paragraphs 26-28). Therefore, your
proposal to deal with your request (25 documents, 23 of them originating
from 3rd parties) within a deadline of 45 working days (15 + 15 + 15)
cannot be accepted by the Legal Service.
As you stated, the judgments in Cases C-156/21 Hungary v. EP and Council,
and C-157/21 Poland v. EP and Council, were delivered on the same day.
However, the submissions made by all the parties have to be assessed
individually and we have to consult those third parties giving them a
deadline of 10 working days to reply to the Legal Service consultation. As
already explained, once the process of consultation is concluded, the
Legal Service will have to proceed to a final assessment of the documents
in the light of the comments received and, where necessary, to redact the
parts of the documents to which one or several exceptions apply. Finally,
it will have to draft the reply, submit it for review and approval by the
competent persons and prepare the reply as well as the documents for
electronic dispatch.
The procedure above cannot be completed by the Legal Service within the
extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days set by Article 7 of Regulation
1049/2001. This means that the scope of your request must be narrowed down
in a way that would enable its treatment within the extended deadline of
15 + 15 working days from the date or registration of your request.
Therefore, the Legal Service confirms its proposal to deal within the
extended deadline with the documents relating to one of the cases, namely:
- Case C-156/21, Hungary v Parliament and Council (13 documents);
OR
- Case C-157/21, Poland v Parliament and Council (12 documents).
As already indicated, once the Commission has sent you its reply, you may
file a new request for access. Please rest assured that we will do our
best to respond to your request in the shortest possible time.
Accordingly, we would kindly ask for your agreement to this proposal
indicating which case you would like us to deal with as a priority.
Thank you for your understanding.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents team
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[email address]
Dear Access to documents Team,
In response to your Fair Solution Proposal (Ares(2022)2790076), I would like to inform you that I agree to proceed with documents related to the Case C-157/21, Poland v Parliament and Council (12 documents). The documents from the other requested case, will be subject to other request.
Yours sincerely,
Patryk Wachowiec
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Your request for Access to Documents - Confirmation of registration -
Ares(2022)3001812 (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)
Dear Mr Wachowiec,
Thank you for accepting our Fair Solution proposal.
Your request concerning the written submissions in case C-157/21 Poland /
Council and Parliament has been registered today, 13 April 2022 under the
reference GestDem 2022/2157.
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 + 15 working days. The deadline will expire on 2
June 2022.
We shall inform you in due course, should this time limit need to be
extended.
Kindly note that the "AsktheEU.org" website is a private 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. Hence, the European Commission
is not responsible for any possible processing of personal data by the
private organisation running the AsktheEU.org website, through which you
have channelled your request. Please refer to their privacy policy. 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.
Yours faithfully,
Access to Documents team
[6]cid:image001.png@01D8295E.30135E70
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[7][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D84F1A.B82E0F80
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Your request to access to documents - Ref. GestDem 2022/2157 - part 1/2
- Ares(2022)4083236 (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)
Dear Mr Wachowiec,
Attached, please find the Legal Service’s reply to your above-referenced
request for access to documents.
We kindly ask you to confirm and acknowledge, by return email, receipt of
the Commission Legal Service’s reply and documents attached.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents team
[6]cid:image001.png@01D8295E.30135E70
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[7][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D875C9.761E6790
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Your request to access to documents - Ref. GestDem 2022/2157 - part 2/2
- Ares(2022)4083325 (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)
Dear Mr Wachowiec,
Attached, please find the Legal Service’s reply to your above-referenced
request for access to documents.
We kindly ask you to confirm and acknowledge, by return email, receipt of
the Commission Legal Service’s reply and documents attached.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents team
[6]cid:image001.png@01D8295E.30135E70
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[7][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D875C9.DBE9F990
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Confirmation of receipt - Ares(2022)4225345 (Please use this link only
if you are an Ares user – Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes
un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)
Dear Mr Wachowiec,
Further to our message below, and unless there has been an error on our
part, we have not received your confirmation on the reception of the
Commission Legal Service’s reply to your request for access referenced:
GestDem 2022/2157.
Accordingly, we kindly ask you to confirm and acknowledge, by return
email, receipt of the Commission Legal Service’s reply sent to you on
Wednesday 1^st June 2022 at 15.11 (GestDem 2022/2157 - part 1/2) and 15.13
(Gestdem 2022/2157 - part 2/2).
Many thanks and best regards,
Access to Documents team
[6]cid:image001.png@01D8295E.30135E70
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[7][email address]
From: SJ ACCES DOCS <[SJ request email]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 1, 2022 3:11 PM
To: [email address]
Cc: SJ ACCES DOCS <[email address]>
Subject: Your request to access to documents - Ref. GestDem 2022/2157 -
part 1/2 - Ares(2022)4083236
[8]Your request to access to documents - Ref. GestDem 2022/2157 - part 1/2
- Ares(2022)4083236 (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)
Dear Mr Wachowiec,
Attached, please find the Legal Service’s reply to your above-referenced
request for access to documents.
We kindly ask you to confirm and acknowledge, by return email, receipt of
the Commission Legal Service’s reply and documents attached.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents team
[9]cid:image001.png@01D8295E.30135E70
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[10][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D87B1B.41A9A540
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]
8. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
10. mailto:[email address]
Dear Access to Documents team,
I confirm that I received a two-part reply to my request registered under GestDem 2022/2157.
Yours sincerely,
Patryk Wachowiec