Documents related to the decision to refuse to provide Alexander Fanta with the Pfizer/Commission text messages
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
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 related to decision by the European Commission not to grant journalist Alexander Fanta access to text messages and other documents relating to the exchange between President Ursula von der Leyen and Albert Bourla, the chief executive of Pfizer, since January 1, 2021, as set out in the following Freedom of Information request:
https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/exch...
In particular I am looking for:
-emails, meetings, reports, transcripts etc, that would provide a record of how that decision was taken
I am also requesting any internal Commission documents responding the the European Ombudsman's decision to classify the Commission's refusal to provide the text messages as maladministration (see here: https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/press...).
This can include, but isn't limited to, documents, emails and memos, produced by the Directorate General for Legal Services or for Transparency evaluating the decision.
Yours faithfully,
Carlo Martuscelli
Rue de la Loi 62,
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/...
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 10/03/2023 and registered on 13/03/2023 under the case number
2023/1587.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 03/04/2023. 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,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 10/03/2023 and registered on 13/03/2023 under the case number
2023/1587.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 03/04/2023. 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,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Mr Martuscelli,
We refer to your email, registered on 13 March 2023, by which you submit a
request for access to documents under 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 application is currently being handled. Unfortunately, we have not
yet been able to finalize the internal consultations 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 request within the prescribed time
limit which expires on 3 April 2023. Consequently, we have to extend this
period by another 15 working days in accordance with Article 7(2) of
Regulation (EC) No1049/2001. The new deadline expires on 27 April 2023.
We regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause. However, we can assure you that we are doing
our utmost to provide you with a final reply as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
SG.C1 ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
Dear Mr Martuscelli,
We refer to your email, registered on 13 March 2023, by which you submit a
request for access to documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
regarding public accessto European Parliament, Council and Commission
documents ("Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001"), registered under reference
number above. We also refer to our email of 3 April 2023, by which the
deadline for handling your request was extended.
Your application is currently being handled. Unfortunately, we still have
not yet been able to finalize all the internal consultations 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 request within the
prescribed time limit which expires on 27 April 2023.
We regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.
However, we can assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide you
with a final reply as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
SG.C1 ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
Dear Mr Martuscelli,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2023/1587.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
SG.C1 ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
Thank you for the reply and the partial submission of documents.
In your reply you cite two reasons to not publish a fuller selection from the list of identified documents, and also do not recognize an overriding public interest.
On the reason of privacy, this is easily addressed by blacking out the names of the officials involved when there could be privacy concerns (within reasonable limits). On the reason of the ongoing court case, I recognize the Commission's right to not jeapordize its legal defense, but this cannot be used as a blanket rationale to block any attempts at public scrutiny into either the third Pfizer contract or the reasons for not disclosing the text messages to Alexander Fanta.
On the topic of overriding public interest, Mr. Fanta was conducting a journalistic investigation into the largest COVID-19 vaccine procurement contract that the Commission entered into, and one in which it appears that the Commission President took an anomolous role when compared with the other contracts signed. It is in the public's interest to understand why exactly there was no disclosure as requested by Mr. Fanta in order to determine whether or not the Commission is acting to occult any irregularities in these negotiations. Furthermore, both Mr. Fanta and I are journalists exercising our professional duties with a capacity to inform the public.
Yours faithfully,
Carlo Martuscelli
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/...
[1]RE: Internal review of access to documents request - Documents related
to the decision to refuse to provide Alexander Fanta with the
Pfizer/Commission text messages - Ares(2023)3524923 (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 Martuscelli,
Thank you for your email.
Could you please confirm to us whether your email should be considered as
a confirmatory application in accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001?
Many thanks.
Kind regards,
Access to documents team (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency
Dear SG ACCES DOCUMENTS,
Yes please treat the above response as a confirmatory application where I give my rationale for seeking a review of the decision.
Yours sincerely,
Carlo Martuscelli
Rue de la Loi 62,
1040 Bruxelles,
Belgium
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2023/1587, sent on 22/05/2023 and registered on 22/05/2023.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 13/06/2023. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2023/1587, sent on 22/05/2023 and registered on 22/05/2023.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 13/06/2023. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
Dear Sir,
Please find attached the electronic version of Commission Decision
C(2024)1865 as adopted by the European Commission on 17.03.2024.
The formal notification of the decision under Article 297 TFEU is being
made only in electronic form.
Could you please confirm receipt of the attached document by return
e-mail?
Many thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
Access to documents team - cr
SG.C.1
Transparency