European Parliament official channels promotion of single-sided political and commercial events
Dear European Parliament,
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:
* any communications in March 2019 related to any of the following tweets posted by the European Parliament Twitter account in French: https://twitter.com/PE_FRANCE/status/110..., which read «À 16h00, suivez le débat sur la scène Europe : "La création européenne à l'heure de la révolution digitale" avec la @sacem @JeanMarieCAVADA @afpfr et @EditionsduSeuil. Au @Salondulivre #LivreParis2019 #Cettefoisjevote» and is archived at <https://web.archive.org/web/201903160615...>; https://twitter.com/PE_FRANCE/status/110..., which read «"La solution ne peut être qu'européenne" expliquent @jntronc et Christine Buhagiar. Sur la scène Europe au @Salondulivre #LivreParis2019 #Cettefoisjevote» and is archived at <https://web.archive.org/web/201903241448...>; https://twitter.com/PE_FRANCE/status/110... , which read «Le débat "réforme du droit d'auteur : la création européenne à l'heure de la révolution digitale" au @Salondulivre débute ! Retrouvez-nous sur la scène Europe avec @JeanMarieCAVADA , @EditionsduSeuil @NoraHamadi @sacem @afpfr #LivreParis2019 #Cettefoisjevote» and is archived at <https://web.archive.org/web/201903241450...>;
* any mention or discussion of Agence France-Presse/AFP, SACEM, Editions du Seuil, Salon du livre or Livre Paris (or any name variant thereof) in 2019;
* any communication about the organisation of the EP stand g122 mentioned in https://twitter.com/PE_FRANCE/status/110... https://twitter.com/PE_FRANCE/status/110... https://twitter.com/PE_FRANCE/status/110... https://twitter.com/PE_FRANCE/status/110... , including logistical and economical arrangements;
* any communication or discussion or direction about policies, practices and individual cases, since 2013, on the usage of social media handles and other official communication resources of the European Parliament to discuss or promote events where:
a) representation includes a single political group in political discussions or a single interest group or side of a policy matter under discussion by the European Parliament;
b) or, where the European Parliament has not yet voted a final position on the topic of the event and someone represents Parliament in an official capacity (as defined in the "Code of conduct for members of the European Parliament with respect to financial interests and conflicts of interest" or the bureau decision of 15 April 2013 on "Implementing measures for the code of conduct for members of the European Parliament with respect to financial interests and conflicts of interest");
c) or, where the event has a commercial nature such as an entrance fee as seen in <https://web.archive.org/web/201903241506...> and <https://web.archive.org/web/201903160618...>.
Please include all information (drafts, memos, notes, letters, emails, logs/notes of phone calls), whether it's considered important or not for filing and archiving, unless already previously published. Feel free to exclude documents which merely contain an URL for the domain afp.com or an image caption which contains "AFP".
Yours faithfully,
Federico Leva
c/o Wikimedia Belgium
Rue du Trône 51
1050 Ixelles
Bruxelles
Our reference: A(2019)3623
Acknowledgment of receipt
Dear Mr Leva,
The European Parliament hereby acknowledges receipt of your application
for access to documents, which was registered on 25/03/2019.
All requests for public access to documents are treated in compliance with
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
In accordance with the above-mentioned Regulation, your application will
be handled within 15 working days upon registration of your request. The
deadline expires on 15/04/2019.
The European Parliament reserves the right to ask for additional
information regarding your identity in order to verify compliance with
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 and the European Parliament’s implementing
measures.
Your attention is drawn to the fact that you have lodged your application
via the AsktheEU.org website, which is a private website not officially
related to the European Parliament. Therefore, the European Parliament
cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to
the use of this system.
kind regards,
TRANSPARENCY UNIT
European Parliament
Directorate-General for the Presidency
Directorate for Interinstitutional Affairs and Legislative Coordination
[1][European Parliament request email]
[2]www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[European Parliament request email]
2. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb
Our reference: A(2019)3623
Dear Mr Leva,
Further to your application seeking information concerning several twits
published in the official Twitter account of the European Parliament in
France as well as about a webpage called “Livre Paris”, Parliament would
like to inform you, as a first consideration, that the scope of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001, as defined in its Article 2(3), extends only to
documents held by an institution.
It is necessary thus, according to well-established case-law, to maintain
a distinction between the concept of a document and that of information,
for the purposes of applying Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Indeed, the General Court establishes that information may be
distinguished from a document, in so far as information is defined as a
data element that may appear in one or more documents. In that respect,
since none of the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 deals with
the right of access to information as such, it cannot be inferred that the
public’s right of access to an institution document implies a duty on the
part of the institution to reply to any request for information from an
individual.
Secondly, Parliament is hereby replying to you under Article 6(2) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, which states that: "If an application is
not sufficiently precise, the institution shall ask the applicant to
clarify the application and shall assist the applicant in doing so, for
example, by providing information on the use of the public registers of
documents".
Your application does not specify concrete documents for which you would
like to request public access in the meaning of Article 6(1) of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001. This article stipulates that an applicant should make
the application in a sufficiently precise manner as to enable the
institution to identify the document(s) in question.
Therefore, pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
Parliament request clarification so your application states in a
sufficiently precise manner the documents requested in order to allow
Parliament to identify them, if any.
In addition, Article Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 also
stipulates that the institution can assist the applicant “[...] for
example, by providing information on the use of the public registers of
documents”.
Under the relevant provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, Parliament
established a register of documents, the “Public Register of Documents”:
[1]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWe...
Parliament’s Public Register of Documents is a system accessible
electronically, through which the institution makes documents directly
available to the public, with a focus on legislative documents. In the
public register, each document is associated to a reference number, a
subject matter and a short description of its content.
You can run a search in the public register via this link:
[2]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWe...
The search can be run using different key words. You may narrow down the
number of results selecting different criteria: for example specifying the
authority and/or specific document types. You can find more information
about how to look for documents in the register here:
[3]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/re...
Finally, you mention in your application several companies and
organisations. Concerning lobby efforts by different companies, or EU
initiatives they follow, you can consult the Transparency Register for
interests representatives:
[4]http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyregister...
Relevant companies and organisations might be identified by running a
search using entries by keyword as well as by certain criteria (data
reporting):
[5]http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyregister...
On this basis, until reception of your clarification, the statutory
deadlines set by Article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 cannot run.
This is due to the fact that at present Parliament is not in the position
to process and assess your application in the light of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001.
Kind regards,
TRANSPARENCY UNIT
European Parliament
Directorate-General for the Presidency
Directorate for Interinstitutional Affairs and Legislative Coordination
[6][European Parliament request email]
[7]www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb
References
Visible links
1. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWe...
2. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWe...
3. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/re...
4. http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyregister...
5. http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyregister...
6. mailto:[European Parliament request email]
7. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb
Our reference: A(2019)3623
Dear Mr Leva,
Further to our email of 10 April 2019 in which we requested clarification,
pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, concerning your
application, and since we have not received any reply from you, for the
sake of legal certainty, Parliament considers your application as handled
and the file closed. Should you have any new requests for specific
Parliament documents, please do not hesitate to come back to us.
Kind regards,
TRANSPARENCY UNIT
European Parliament
Directorate-General for the Presidency
Directorate for Interinstitutional Affairs and Legislative Coordination
[1][European Parliament request email]
[2]www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[European Parliament request email]
2. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegistreWeb