Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice

Die Anfrage war erfolgreich.

Franklin DEHOUSSE

Dear European Court of Auditors,

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 exchanges between the EU Court of Auditors and the Court of Justice regarding the Performance review of case management at the Court of Justice of the European Union, especially concerning the IT systems weak performance, and the documents whose transfer was refused by the Court of Justice.
* Copy of the registry providing the list of those documents

Yours faithfully,

Franklin Dehousse

ECA-INFO, Der Europäische Rechnungshof

Dear Mr Dehousse,

Thank you for contacting the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

We hereby confirm receipt of your query of 10 January 2019.

Your request is currently being dealt with and we will reply to you as soon as possible.

Kind regards,
ECA-INFO
(European Court of Auditors information desk)

-----Original Message-----
From: Franklin DEHOUSSE <[FOI #6267 email]>
Sent: Thursday 10 January 2019 09:29
To: ECA-INFO <[European Court of Auditors request email]>
Subject: access to documents request - Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice

Dear European Court of Auditors,

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 exchanges between the EU Court of Auditors and the Court of Justice regarding the Performance review of case management at the Court of Justice of the European Union, especially concerning the IT systems weak performance, and the documents whose transfer was refused by the Court of Justice.
* Copy of the registry providing the list of those documents

Yours faithfully,

Franklin Dehousse

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a request for access to information under Article 15 of the TFEU and, where applicable, Regulation 1049/2001 which has been sent via the AsktheEU.org website.

Please kindly use this email address for all replies to this request: [FOI #6267 email]

If [European Court of Auditors request email] is the wrong address for information requests to European Court of Auditors, please tell the AsktheEU.org team on email [email address]

This message and all replies from European Court of Auditors will be published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

-------------------------------------------------------------------

**********
Disclaimer: If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender immediately.
**********
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Zitierte Abschnitte verbergen

ECA-INFO, Der Europäische Rechnungshof

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dehousse,

Following your request of 10 January 2019, please find attached the reply of the European Court of Auditors. In a separate e-mail, we attach the documents to which you are provided access.

Kind regards,
ECA-INFO
(European Court of Auditors information desk)

-----Original Message-----
From: Franklin DEHOUSSE <[FOI #6267 email]>
Sent: Thursday 10 January 2019 09:29
To: ECA-INFO <[European Court of Auditors request email]>
Subject: access to documents request - Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice

Dear European Court of Auditors,

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 exchanges between the EU Court of Auditors and the Court of Justice regarding the Performance review of case management at the Court of Justice of the European Union, especially concerning the IT systems weak performance, and the documents whose transfer was refused by the Court of Justice.
* Copy of the registry providing the list of those documents

Yours faithfully,

Franklin Dehousse

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a request for access to information under Article 15 of the TFEU and, where applicable, Regulation 1049/2001 which has been sent via the AsktheEU.org website.

Please kindly use this email address for all replies to this request: [FOI #6267 email]

If [European Court of Auditors request email] is the wrong address for information requests to European Court of Auditors, please tell the AsktheEU.org team on email [email address]

This message and all replies from European Court of Auditors will be published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

-------------------------------------------------------------------

**********
Disclaimer: If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender immediately.
**********
Avertissement: Si ce message vous a été adressé par erreur, nous vous prions de vous mettre en rapport avec l'expéditeur.

Zitierte Abschnitte verbergen

ECA-INFO, Der Europäische Rechnungshof

1 Attachment

-----Original Message-----
From: Franklin DEHOUSSE <[FOI #6267 email]>
Sent: Thursday 10 January 2019 09:29
To: ECA-INFO <[European Court of Auditors request email]>
Subject: access to documents request - Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice

Dear European Court of Auditors,

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 exchanges between the EU Court of Auditors and the Court of Justice regarding the Performance review of case management at the Court of Justice of the European Union, especially concerning the IT systems weak performance, and the documents whose transfer was refused by the Court of Justice.
* Copy of the registry providing the list of those documents

Yours faithfully,

Franklin Dehousse

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a request for access to information under Article 15 of the TFEU and, where applicable, Regulation 1049/2001 which has been sent via the AsktheEU.org website.

Please kindly use this email address for all replies to this request: [FOI #6267 email]

If [European Court of Auditors request email] is the wrong address for information requests to European Court of Auditors, please tell the AsktheEU.org team on email [email address]

This message and all replies from European Court of Auditors will be published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

-------------------------------------------------------------------

**********
Disclaimer: If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender immediately.
**********
Avertissement: Si ce message vous a été adressé par erreur, nous vous prions de vous mettre en rapport avec l'expéditeur.

Zitierte Abschnitte verbergen

Dear European Court of Auditors,

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 'Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice'

To Mr. K.H. LEHNE

President of the ECA

Concerns : request for reconsideration / my request for access 10/1/2019

Dear Mr President,

To begin with, I’d like to thank those responsible for a quick and clear answer.

Some elements, however, do not seem satisfactory to me (contrary to those related to personal data and ECJ documents, which are perfectly acceptable). This justifies, in my humble opinion, a reconsideration.

1. I take note that the ECA has no administrative register. Of course, the institution is not covered by Regulation 1049/2001. Nonetheless, it is important to remember it is covered by most fundamental provisions, like the Charter of fundamental rights, establishing citizens’ rights like the right to transparency (Art. 42), the right to information (Art. 11), and the right to a good administration (Art. 41). Article 15 TFEU is also essential. It establishes principles that apply to all institutions. Furthermore, the limitations introduced for the ECJ or the ECB do not even apply to the ECA.

2. Consequently, the ECA should possess an instrument allowing the effective implementation of these rules. Without such an instrument, they remain theoretical. This defect makes in fact participatory democracy impossible.

3. In any case, the principle of good administration alone obliges all institutions to have an official inventory of their documents. This is a most basic pillar of good management.

4. In the case of the report on the ECJ performance, the least that the ECA can provide is a list of the exchanges between the two institutions and their topic, and of the working documents. This inventory should be general, and not limited to the few documents the ECA decides to communicate.

5. Your service seems to consider that all those documents are covered by the restriction established by Articles 258(1) and 259(1) of Regulation 2018/1046. They would be “audit observations”. However, these articles do not cover any kind of observation, but “any observations which are, in its opinion, such that they should appear in its annual report” and “any observations which are, in its opinion, such that they should appear in a special report”. In both cases, they are thus drafts for final reports. The ECA’s argument is much more extensive and covers in fact all exchanges and all analyses concerning all institutions. This does not conform to the principles mentioned above. Even if it were correct, it should apply only during the drafting of the report. What would be the logic of publishing the answers of the institutions (as foreseen by Articles 258 and 259) and keeping eternally secret the ECA’s observations in the same context ? Finally, as the ECA’s core business is making such observations, this would purely abolish the transparency principle as far as that institution is concerned. It must be emphasized strongly that, according to the EU Treaties, transparency is the principle and exceptions remain of strict interpretation. Your service’s position is in reality based on the opposite system.

6. The ECA has a puzzling answer about the disfunctionings of the ECJ’s IT system. Your performance report makes an important comment about that topic. According to its answer, however, “the information gathered by the auditors concerning those IT systems comes from concrete demonstrations of the features of the IT systems, made by staff of the CJEU, from interviews with judges and the Registrars and consultation of IT-related documents on the premises of the CJEU”. So, a whole team has worked with the CJEU during one year, it has assessed a very complex IT system, which costs around 16 million euros/year, and there is not a single sheet of paper in your whole institution analyzing that. At first sight, it seems hard to believe unless the ECA’s “work” was strictly limited to duplicate the CJEU’s own observations about its IT defects.

7. Finally, this report was made in the context of the doubling of the General Court’s cabinets (a strong increase of resources you supported as a president of the EP legal affairs commission, if I remember correctly). At the time, the Parliament and the Council were eager to limit the increase in cabinets’ personnel. Since then, the ECJ has indicated to me that it had not a single analysis of the cabinets’ productivity. The ECA letter means, still more curiously, that it has not either such an analysis. It looks quite bizarre to assess an institution’s performance without a single analysis of productivity of its personnel in the short and the long term. As such an evaluation is the ECA’s core business, it seems, again, hard to believe that there is not a single sheet of paper in your whole institution about that.

8. As a conclusion, I’d like to catch your attention on the systemic nature of our debate. If you maintain, as a matter of principle, such a very restrictive approach towards the citizens’ access to documents, it will make the ECA an institution whose public control is largely impossible. This, in a period of great crisis of trust in the EU institutions, is not recommended at all.

I thank you for your attention and remain of course at your disposition if any additional clarification is required.

With my best regards

Franklin Dehousse

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/exte...

ECA-INFO, Der Europäische Rechnungshof

Dear Sir,

Thank you for contacting again the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
We have received your request for reconsideration of 12 February 2019 and your e-mail of 13 February 2019 by which you ask an acknowledgement of receipt. We are currently dealing with your request for reconsideration and will reply to you as soon as we can.
Kind regards,

ECA-INFO
(European Court of Auditors information desk)

-----Original Message-----
From: Franklin DEHOUSSE <[FOI #6267 email]>
Sent: Tuesday 12 February 2019 11:51
To: ECA-INFO <[European Court of Auditors request email]>
Subject: Internal review of access to documents request - Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice

Dear European Court of Auditors,

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 'Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice'

To Mr. K.H. LEHNE

President of the ECA

Concerns : request for reconsideration / my request for access 10/1/2019

Dear Mr President,

To begin with, I’d like to thank those responsible for a quick and clear answer.

Some elements, however, do not seem satisfactory to me (contrary to those related to personal data and ECJ documents, which are perfectly acceptable). This justifies, in my humble opinion, a reconsideration.

1.I take note that the ECA has no administrative register. Of course, the institution is not covered by Regulation 1049/2001. Nonetheless, it is important to remember it is covered by most fundamental provisions, like the Charter of fundamental rights, establishing citizens’ rights like the right to transparency (Art. 42), the right to information (Art. 11), and the right to a good administration (Art. 41). Article 15 TFEU is also essential. It establishes principles that apply to all institutions. Furthermore, the limitations introduced for the ECJ or the ECB do not even apply to the ECA.

2.Consequently, the ECA should possess an instrument allowing the effective implementation of these rules. Without such an instrument, they remain theoretical. This defect makes in fact participatory democracy impossible.

3.In any case, the principle of good administration alone obliges all institutions to have an official inventory of their documents. This is a most basic pillar of good management.

4.In the case of the report on the ECJ performance, the least that the ECA can provide is a list of the exchanges between the two institutions and their topic, and of the working documents. This inventory should be general, and not limited to the few documents the ECA decides to communicate.

5.Your service seems to consider that all those documents are covered by the restriction established by Articles 258(1) and 259(1) of Regulation 2018/1046. They would be “audit observations”. However, these articles do not cover any kind of observation, but “any observations which are, in its opinion, such that they should appear in its annual report” and “any observations which are, in its opinion, such that they should appear in a special report”. In both cases, they are thus drafts for final reports. The ECA’s argument is much more extensive and covers in fact all exchanges and all analyses concerning all institutions. This does not conform to the principles mentioned above. Even if it were correct, it should apply only during the drafting of the report. What would be the logic of publishing the answers of the institutions (as foreseen by Articles 258 and 259) and keeping eternally secret the ECA’s observations in the same context ? Finally, as the ECA’s core business is making such observations, this would purely abolish the transparency principle as far as that institution is concerned. It must be emphasized strongly that, according to the EU Treaties, transparency is the principle and exceptions remain of strict interpretation. Your service’s position is in reality based on the opposite system.

6.The ECA has a puzzling answer about the disfunctionings of the ECJ’s IT system. Your performance report makes an important comment about that topic. According to its answer, however, “the information gathered by the auditors concerning those IT systems comes from concrete demonstrations of the features of the IT systems, made by staff of the CJEU, from interviews with judges and the Registrars and consultation of IT-related documents on the premises of the CJEU”. So, a whole team has worked with the CJEU during one year, it has assessed a very complex IT system, which costs around 16 million euros/year, and there is not a single sheet of paper in your whole institution analyzing that. At first sight, it seems hard to believe unless the ECA’s “work” was strictly limited to duplicate the CJEU’s own observations about its IT defects.

7.Finally, this report was made in the context of the doubling of the General Court’s cabinets (a strong increase of resources you supported as a president of the EP legal affairs commission, if I remember correctly). At the time, the Parliament and the Council were eager to limit the increase in cabinets’ personnel. Since then, the ECJ has indicated to me that it had not a single analysis of the cabinets’ productivity. The ECA letter means, still more curiously, that it has not either such an analysis. It looks quite bizarre to assess an institution’s performance without a single analysis of productivity of its personnel in the short and the long term. As such an evaluation is the ECA’s core business, it seems, again, hard to believe that there is not a single sheet of paper in your whole institution about that.

8.As a conclusion, I’d like to catch your attention on the systemic nature of our debate. If you maintain, as a matter of principle, such a very restrictive approach towards the citizens’ access to documents, it will make the ECA an institution whose public control is largely impossible. This, in a period of great crisis of trust in the EU institutions, is not recommended at all.

I thank you for your attention and remain of course at your disposition if any additional clarification is required.

With my best regards

Franklin Dehousse

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/exte...

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #6267 email]

This message and all replies from European Court of Auditors will be published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

-------------------------------------------------------------------

**********
Disclaimer: If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender immediately.
**********
Avertissement: Si ce message vous a été adressé par erreur, nous vous prions de vous mettre en rapport avec l'expéditeur.

Zitierte Abschnitte verbergen

ECA-INFO, Der Europäische Rechnungshof

Dear Mr Dehousse,

 

Your request for reconsideration of 12 February 2019 is currently under
treatment.

 

Due to internal consultation and approval processes, we have to extend the
initial 15 working days deadline, by another 15 working days, as per
Article 8.3 of the ECA Decision No 12-2005 regarding public access to ECA
documents.

 

We will provide you with a reply in due course

Kind regards,

 

[1]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag...

[2]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag... ECA-INFO

Information Desk

12, rue Alcide
De Gasperi -
L-1615
Luxembourg
[3]eca.europa.eu

  [4]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag... Please
consider the environment before printing this email

[5]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag...

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Franklin DEHOUSSE <[FOI #6267 email]>
Sent: Tuesday 12 February 2019 11:51
To: ECA-INFO <[European Court of Auditors request email]>
Subject: Internal review of access to documents request - Extent of
control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice

 

Dear European Court of Auditors,

 

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 'Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on
EU Court of Justice'

 

To Mr. K.H. LEHNE

 

President of the ECA

 

Concerns : request for reconsideration / my request for access 10/1/2019

 

Dear Mr President,

 

To begin with, I’d like to thank those responsible for a quick and clear
answer.

 

Some elements, however, do not seem satisfactory to me (contrary to those
related to personal data and ECJ documents, which are perfectly
acceptable). This justifies, in my humble opinion, a reconsideration.

 

1.            I take note that the ECA has no administrative register. Of
course, the institution is not covered by Regulation 1049/2001.
Nonetheless, it is important to remember it is covered by most fundamental
provisions, like the Charter of fundamental rights, establishing citizens’
rights like the right to transparency (Art. 42), the right to information
(Art. 11), and the right to a good administration (Art. 41). Article 15
TFEU is also essential. It establishes principles that apply to all
institutions. Furthermore, the limitations introduced for the ECJ or the
ECB do not even apply to the ECA.

 

2.            Consequently, the ECA should possess an instrument allowing
the effective implementation of these rules. Without such an instrument,
they remain theoretical. This defect makes in fact participatory democracy
impossible.

 

3.            In any case, the principle of good administration alone
obliges all institutions to have an official inventory of their documents.
This is a most basic pillar of good management.

 

4.            In the case of the report on the ECJ performance, the least
that the ECA can provide is a list of the exchanges between the two
institutions and their topic, and of the working documents. This inventory
should be general, and not limited to the few documents the ECA decides to
communicate.

 

5.            Your service seems to consider that all those documents are
covered by the restriction established by Articles 258(1) and 259(1) of
Regulation 2018/1046. They would be “audit observations”. However, these
articles do not cover any kind of observation, but “any observations which
are, in its opinion, such that they should appear in its annual report”
and “any observations which are, in its opinion, such that they should
appear in a special report”. In both cases, they are thus drafts for final
reports. The ECA’s argument is much more extensive and covers in fact all
exchanges and all analyses concerning all institutions. This does not
conform to the principles mentioned above. Even if it were correct, it
should apply only during the drafting of the report. What would be the
logic of publishing the answers of the institutions (as foreseen by
Articles 258 and 259) and keeping eternally secret the ECA’s observations
in the same context ? Finally, as the ECA’s core business is making such
observations, this would purely abolish the transparency principle as far
as that institution is concerned. It must be emphasized strongly that,
according to the EU Treaties, transparency is the principle and exceptions
remain of strict interpretation. Your service’s position is in reality
based on the opposite system.

 

6.            The ECA has a puzzling answer about the disfunctionings of
the ECJ’s IT system. Your performance report makes an important comment
about that topic. According to its answer, however, “the information
gathered by the auditors concerning those IT systems comes from concrete
demonstrations of the features of the IT systems, made by staff of the
CJEU, from interviews with judges and the Registrars and consultation of
IT-related documents on the premises of the CJEU”. So, a whole team has
worked with the CJEU during one year, it has assessed a very complex IT
system, which costs around 16 million euros/year, and there is not a
single sheet of paper in your whole institution analyzing that. At first
sight, it seems hard to believe unless the ECA’s “work” was strictly
limited to duplicate the CJEU’s own observations about its IT defects.

 

7.            Finally, this report was made in the context of the doubling
of the General Court’s cabinets (a strong increase of resources you
supported as a president of the EP legal affairs commission, if I remember
correctly). At the time, the Parliament and the Council were eager to
limit the increase in cabinets’ personnel. Since then, the ECJ has
indicated to me that it had not a single analysis of the cabinets’
productivity. The ECA letter means, still more curiously, that it has not
either such an analysis. It looks quite bizarre to assess an institution’s
performance without a single analysis of productivity of its personnel in
the short and the long term. As such an evaluation is the ECA’s core
business, it seems, again, hard to believe that there is not a single
sheet of paper in your whole institution about that.

 

8.            As a conclusion, I’d like to catch your attention on the
systemic nature of our debate. If you maintain, as a matter of principle,
such a very restrictive approach towards the citizens’ access to
documents, it will make the ECA an institution whose public control is
largely impossible. This, in a period of great crisis of trust in the EU
institutions, is not recommended at all.

 

I thank you for your attention and remain of course at your disposition if
any additional clarification is required.

 

With my best regards

 

Franklin   Dehousse

 

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the
Internet at this address:
[6]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/exte...

 

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[7][FOI #6267 email]

 

This message and all replies from European Court of Auditors will be
published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our
dedicated page for EU public officials at
[8]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

**********
Disclaimer: If you have received this message in error, please contact the
sender immediately.
**********
Avertissement: Si ce message vous a été adressé par erreur, nous vous
prions de vous mettre en rapport avec l'expéditeur.

References

Visible links
3. file:///tmp/eca.europa.eu
6. https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/exte...
7. mailto:[FOI #6267 email]
8. https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

Zitierte Abschnitte verbergen

ECA-INFO, Der Europäische Rechnungshof

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dehousse,

 

Please find here attached the answer to your request.

 

Kind regards,

ECA-INFO

[1]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag...

[2]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag... ECA-INFO
Information Desk
12, rue Alcide
De Gasperi -
L-1615
Luxembourg
[3]eca.europa.eu

  [4]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag... Please
consider the environment before printing this email
[5]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag...

 

 

From: ECA-INFO <[European Court of Auditors request email]>
Sent: Tuesday 5 March 2019 10:58
To: Franklin DEHOUSSE <[FOI #6267 email]>
Cc: ECA-INFO <[European Court of Auditors request email]>
Subject: RE: Internal review of access to documents request - Extent of
control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice

 

Dear Mr Dehousse,

 

Your request for reconsideration of 12 February 2019 is currently under
treatment.

 

Due to internal consultation and approval processes, we have to extend the
initial 15 working days deadline, by another 15 working days, as per
Article 8.3 of the ECA Decision No 12-2005 regarding public access to ECA
documents.

 

We will provide you with a reply in due course

Kind regards,

 

[6]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag...

[7]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag... ECA-INFO

Information Desk

12, rue Alcide
De Gasperi -
L-1615
Luxembourg
[8]eca.europa.eu

  [9]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag... Please
consider the environment before printing this email

[10]https://www.eca.europa.eu/PublishingImag...

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Franklin DEHOUSSE <[11][FOI #6267 email]>
Sent: Tuesday 12 February 2019 11:51
To: ECA-INFO <[12][European Court of Auditors request email]>
Subject: Internal review of access to documents request - Extent of
control of EU Court of Auditors on EU Court of Justice

 

Dear European Court of Auditors,

 

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 'Extent of control of EU Court of Auditors on
EU Court of Justice'

 

To Mr. K.H. LEHNE

 

President of the ECA

 

Concerns : request for reconsideration / my request for access 10/1/2019

 

Dear Mr President,

 

To begin with, I’d like to thank those responsible for a quick and clear
answer.

 

Some elements, however, do not seem satisfactory to me (contrary to those
related to personal data and ECJ documents, which are perfectly
acceptable). This justifies, in my humble opinion, a reconsideration.

 

1.            I take note that the ECA has no administrative register. Of
course, the institution is not covered by Regulation 1049/2001.
Nonetheless, it is important to remember it is covered by most fundamental
provisions, like the Charter of fundamental rights, establishing citizens’
rights like the right to transparency (Art. 42), the right to information
(Art. 11), and the right to a good administration (Art. 41). Article 15
TFEU is also essential. It establishes principles that apply to all
institutions. Furthermore, the limitations introduced for the ECJ or the
ECB do not even apply to the ECA.

 

2.            Consequently, the ECA should possess an instrument allowing
the effective implementation of these rules. Without such an instrument,
they remain theoretical. This defect makes in fact participatory democracy
impossible.

 

3.            In any case, the principle of good administration alone
obliges all institutions to have an official inventory of their documents.
This is a most basic pillar of good management.

 

4.            In the case of the report on the ECJ performance, the least
that the ECA can provide is a list of the exchanges between the two
institutions and their topic, and of the working documents. This inventory
should be general, and not limited to the few documents the ECA decides to
communicate.

 

5.            Your service seems to consider that all those documents are
covered by the restriction established by Articles 258(1) and 259(1) of
Regulation 2018/1046. They would be “audit observations”. However, these
articles do not cover any kind of observation, but “any observations which
are, in its opinion, such that they should appear in its annual report”
and “any observations which are, in its opinion, such that they should
appear in a special report”. In both cases, they are thus drafts for final
reports. The ECA’s argument is much more extensive and covers in fact all
exchanges and all analyses concerning all institutions. This does not
conform to the principles mentioned above. Even if it were correct, it
should apply only during the drafting of the report. What would be the
logic of publishing the answers of the institutions (as foreseen by
Articles 258 and 259) and keeping eternally secret the ECA’s observations
in the same context ? Finally, as the ECA’s core business is making such
observations, this would purely abolish the transparency principle as far
as that institution is concerned. It must be emphasized strongly that,
according to the EU Treaties, transparency is the principle and exceptions
remain of strict interpretation. Your service’s position is in reality
based on the opposite system.

 

6.            The ECA has a puzzling answer about the disfunctionings of
the ECJ’s IT system. Your performance report makes an important comment
about that topic. According to its answer, however, “the information
gathered by the auditors concerning those IT systems comes from concrete
demonstrations of the features of the IT systems, made by staff of the
CJEU, from interviews with judges and the Registrars and consultation of
IT-related documents on the premises of the CJEU”. So, a whole team has
worked with the CJEU during one year, it has assessed a very complex IT
system, which costs around 16 million euros/year, and there is not a
single sheet of paper in your whole institution analyzing that. At first
sight, it seems hard to believe unless the ECA’s “work” was strictly
limited to duplicate the CJEU’s own observations about its IT defects.

 

7.            Finally, this report was made in the context of the doubling
of the General Court’s cabinets (a strong increase of resources you
supported as a president of the EP legal affairs commission, if I remember
correctly). At the time, the Parliament and the Council were eager to
limit the increase in cabinets’ personnel. Since then, the ECJ has
indicated to me that it had not a single analysis of the cabinets’
productivity. The ECA letter means, still more curiously, that it has not
either such an analysis. It looks quite bizarre to assess an institution’s
performance without a single analysis of productivity of its personnel in
the short and the long term. As such an evaluation is the ECA’s core
business, it seems, again, hard to believe that there is not a single
sheet of paper in your whole institution about that.

 

8.            As a conclusion, I’d like to catch your attention on the
systemic nature of our debate. If you maintain, as a matter of principle,
such a very restrictive approach towards the citizens’ access to
documents, it will make the ECA an institution whose public control is
largely impossible. This, in a period of great crisis of trust in the EU
institutions, is not recommended at all.

 

I thank you for your attention and remain of course at your disposition if
any additional clarification is required.

 

With my best regards

 

Franklin   Dehousse

 

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the
Internet at this address:
[13]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/exte...

 

 

 

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