Documents regarding endocrine disrupters DG TRADE

Ihre Anfrage war teilweise erfolgreich.

Dear Trade (TRADE),

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 – on the topic of endocrine disrupters (also spelled: disruptors), all correspondence (including emails), the list of meetings with detailed minutes and any other reports of such meetings between DG AGRI’s officials (including the Commissioner and his Cabinet members) and representatives of the following organisations:

-CEFIC
-PlasticsEurope
-European Crop Protection Association (ECPA)
-CropLife America
-Bayer
-BASF
-Dow
-DuPont
-Syngenta
-European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC)
-American Chemistry Council
-Cosmetics Europe
-L’Oréal
-BusinessEurope
-American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU)
-American Chemistry Council
-USA Government
-UK Government
-German Government
-French Government

between January 2012 and September 2013.

2 – on the topic of endocrine disrupters (also spelled: disruptors), all correspondence (including emails), the list of meetings with detailed minutes and any other reports of such meetings between DG TRADE’s officials (including the Commissioner and his Cabinet members) AND DG ENTREPRISE’s officials (including the Commissioner and his Cabinet members), DG SANCO’s officials (including the Commissioner and his Cabinet members), DG ENVIRONMENT’s officials (including the Commissioner and his Cabinet members), and Secretariat Genral’ officials.

between January 2012 and September 2013.

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.

Thank you for your assistance.
Yours faithfully,

Stéphane Horel

Generaldirektion Handel

Dear Stephane,

Could I have your phone number, so that I can clarify your request. I would like to make sure I understand it right before I start involving other services of commission. You can send it to TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS <[DG TRADE request email]>

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Kind regards,
Indre

Indre VAICEKAUSKAITE
Access to Documents

European Commission
DG TRADE
Unit A3 - Information, communication and civil society
CHAR 7/90
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 295 61 07
[email address]

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Dear Trade (TRADE),
Dear Mrs VAICEKAUSKAITE,

following our phone conversation, I wish to make a correction to the first point of my request. I am asking for the documents concerning DG TRADE of course, and not DG AGRI. My apologies for this silly mistake.

Have a good day.
Yours faithfully,

Stéphane Horel

Generaldirektion Handel

Dear Sir or Madam,

Your request for access to documents has been registered. This message is an acknowledgement of receipt.
In accordance with Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, you will receive a reply within 15 working days (27/09/2013).

Yours faithfully,

Indre VAICEKAUSKAITE
Access to Documents

European Commission
DG TRADE
Unit A3 - Information, communication and civil society

Generaldirektion Handel

Dear Ms Horel,

I'm writing to you with regards to your access to documents request, mentioned in the subject.

Please be reassured that we are doing our best to provide you with the reply as soon as possible, however due to the complexity and sensitive nature of your request and the large files we need to go through to retrieve the documents you ask for we still not have an estimation of the number of documents concerned by your application. Consequently, we cannot yet commit to a specific date for the reply.

I think I will give you more precise details with indications on the number of documents concerned and the reply date in near future due to the following reasons:

• The team that is going through the files and will need to screen the documents is very much involved in negotiations process, meaning that they are also preparing for the 2nd round of negotiations with EU/US that will take place in October.
• Documents you are asking for, have a sensitive nature
• Some of the documents comes from third parties, and in those cases we need to consult them.

I will keep you updated as things progress and please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Best,
Indre

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Generaldirektion Handel

Dear Ms Horel,

Please be reassured that we are working on your request and doing our best to provide you with the reply as soon as possible, I should be able to give you more precise information on the date of the reply on the week of 4th of November.

I would like to apologise for the delay and any inconvenience caused in processing your complex request,
Kind regards,
Indre

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Dear Trade (TRADE),
Dear Mrs VAICEKAUSKAITE,

Thank you for your messages. In your email dated 28 October, you wrote I would get more precise information on the date of the reply on the week of 4th November. Today is Friday 8th November still I haven't received any information nor any document from DG Trade.

I am now concerned that my request might suffer unjustified delay. I would hope to receive any time soon the documents themselves, and not merely the date of their release.

Thank you.
Yours faithfully,

Stéphane Horel

Generaldirektion Handel

Dear Ms Horel,

First of all let me apologise for this late reply, as explained by the phone, this was due to the fact that we had an internal meeting on your request today, and I was waiting for the outcome of this meeting in order to give you a more precise information.

As already mentioned, we have identified six documents falling under the scope of your request, in order to provide you with the widest possible access we are considering weather partial release in some cases could be done, and due to the sensitive subject, and its relation to ongoing TTIP negotiations, we need to asses possible impact of this release for the negotiation process along with not putting in danger our relations with Unites States.

In addition we are going through big files in order to identify email correspondence between different DGs that you have requested, this is time consuming process.

I can understand that you would be willing to get an indicative date of the reply and as mentioned during our phone conversation we will try to reply in the next 15 working days (04/12/2013). As explained we need between 5 a 10 working days only to circulate in the house in order to get an approval from our hierarchy.

I would like to apologise for this delay and any inconvenience this may cause.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have further questions.

Kind regards,
Indre

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Generaldirektion Handel

Dear Ms Horel,

I'm writing to you to inform that your request is in circulation for approval of our hierarchy, you should be receiving it shortly, but not yet today, as suggested in my previous email.
I would like to apologise for this delay and any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
Indre

Indre VAICEKAUSKAITE
Access to Documents

European Commission
DG TRADE
Unit A3 - Information, communication and civil society
CHAR 7/90
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 295 61 07
[email address]

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Generaldirektion Handel

Dear Ms Horel,

This is to follow up the phone conversation we had before holidays. As explained via the phone we will send you one reply for all the documents and you will receive them in the second half of January. I have explained to responsible unit the importance and need to provide you with a reply as soon as possible, and they promised to do their best.

One more time I would like to apologise for this delay and any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind regards,
Indre

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Dear Trade (TRADE),
Dear Mrs VAICEKAUSKAITE,

thank you for your message. I am looking forward to receiving your reply and, hopefully, the documents.

Yours faithfully,

Stéphane Horel

Generaldirektion Handel

5 Attachments

Dear Mr Horel,

 

Please find attached on behalf of Mr Demarty the reply to the request
mentioned above.

 

Best regards.

 

 

 

Dear Trade (TRADE),
Dear Mr Demarty,

Thank you for your message and the documents you released. However, I wish to make a confirmatory application.
I will not argue about the partial release that you justify under Article 8(b)/personal data.
Yet, I will argue:
1/about the partial release of document N°2. The ongoing decision process at the Commission is about establishing scientific criteria on endocrine disrupters. If some “commercial interests” come into the picture and a “strategy” is developped by AmChamEU on the topic as part of the TTIP negociations, as you write yourself, then I would say there is an overriding public interest in the full disclosure of your documents indeed. I am also astounded that DG Trade would share views with AMChamEU representatives on the EU internal decision process, but would consider inappropriate to share them with the public. I would appreciate it if you could release the censored sentences.
2/about documents 3 and 4. As you are probably aware of, I have made other access to document requests on the preparation of criteria for endocrine disruptors. The other DGs, Entreprise notably, have released their documents and not withheld them under article 4.3 except for a very few exceptions. Therefore, if the Commission’s transparency policy was to be consistent, DG Trade cannot invoke this article (First paragraph of your reply on documents 3 and 4).
Furthermore, you argue that releasing these documents would undermine the EU’s position during the TTIP negociations. This statement is puzzling as you are exchanging views with US industry and not the negociations delegates or official representatives of the US government (Second paragraph).
I would appreciate it if you could release the documents.
3/about unreleased and unlisted additional emails. Exactly as in my bullet point 1, other DGs have released some communications between different Commission services. I would like to ask you to, at least, provide a list of these exchanges, but also to release them.

The Commission has not respected the deadlines decided by the Parliament. Therefore I strongly believe there is an overriding public interest in accessing documents concerning an important decision that will deeply impact public health in the EU, and that has been delayed.

Yours sincerely,
Stéphane

Stéphane Horel

Generaldirektion Handel

Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your email dated 21/02/2014.

 

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents, which was registered on 26/02/2014 under reference number
GestDem 2013/4499 – Ares(2014) 508206.

 

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 19/03/2014. In case this time limit needs to
be extended, you will be informed in due course.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

Carlos Remis

SG.B.4.

Transparence.

Berl. 05/329.

 

 

 

 

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Generaldirektion Handel

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Horel,

Kindly find the answer to your confirmatory application concerning your
request for access to documents pursuant to Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001
regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission
documents (Gestdem 2013/4499).
Yours sincerely,
Carlos Remis
SG.B.5.
Transparence.
Berl. 05/329.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

Generaldirektion Handel

4 Attachments

  • Attachment

    Picture Device Independent Bitmap 1.jpg

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  • Attachment

    HOREL 2013 4499 EN.pdf

    553K Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    document a AmCham EU calls for a substance by substance approach to regulate Endocrine Disruptors 25 June 2013.pdf

    242K Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    document b AmCham EU Position on endocrine disruption 3 September.pdf

    220K Download View as HTML

Dear Ms Horel,

Kindly find the answer to your confirmatory application concerning your
request for access to documents pursuant to Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001
regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission
documents (Gestdem 2013/4499).
Yours sincerely,
Carlos Remis
SG.B.4.
Transparence.
Berl. 05/329.