fundings for ETHOS and CORE programmes
Cher Direction générale de l’énergie,
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:
How much has been granted by the European Union to the following programmes aimed at rehabilitating the territories contaminated after the Chernobyl disaster?
-ETHOS 1
-ETHOS 2
-CORE (COoperation for Rehabilitation)
Please provide for each year the details about the origin of these funds (FERT, DG ENER, ENVI, ...) and the recipient.
I would like to make clear I prefer you produce the documents on a rolling basis. At no point should the Commission's search for—or deliberations concerning—certain documents delay the production of others that the Commission has already retrieved and elected to produce.
Best regards,
E. Deront
Dear Energy (ENER),
I would like to remind you that you have not replied to my request about CORE and ETHOS fundings within the legal time limit.
I find this absence of reaction regrettable and I am still awaiting your answer.
Yours faithfully,
Deront
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your request for access to documents. Unfortunately you have not indicated your postal address that is required for registering and handling your request in line with the procedural requirements. Please send us your full postal address at your earliest convenience.
You may, of course, use directly the electronic form for entering your request:
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/...
ENER ACCES DOCUMENTS Team
European Commission
DG ENER
Unit A.1
DM24 08/046
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 298 17 47
Dear Energy (ENER),
According to my right under Regulation 1049/2001, I would like to receive information in electronic form.
Thank you for your understanding,
Yours faithfully,
Deront
Dear Sir,
Your request under Regulation 1049/2001, is subject to the rule that your postal address is mandatory for registration and handling.
Pending your reply, we reserve the right to refuse the registration of your request.
As already mentioned, you may, of course, use directly the electronic form for entering your request:
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/...
Yours faithfully,
ENER ACCES DOCUMENTS Team
European Commission
DG ENER
Unit A.1
DM24 08/046
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 298 17 47
Dear Energy (ENER),
Thank you for your response, in which you ask for my postal address, which you state is "required" for registering and handling my request in line with the "procedural requirements".
I would like this to be considered as a confirmatory application against your refusal to process my request without a postal address.
The right of access to EU documents is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 42 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and set out in Article 15 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. My request was made in exercise of that right.
Article 15 of the TFEU makes clear that the principles for and limits on exercise of the right of access to documents “shall be determined by the European Parliament and the Council, by means of regulations, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure” and that any Rules of Procedure adopted by the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the EU must be “in accordance with [these] regulations.” The Regulation currently in force is Regulation 1049/2001.
According to Regulation 1049/2001, the only things which may be "required" of an applicant in order for a request to be registered are found in Article 6.1, which includes an exhaustive list: applications must be made in "any written form", in one of the official languages, and in a "sufficiently precise manner to enable the institution to identify the document". I have met all of these requirements.
At no point does the Regulation mention that the requester must provide his or her postal address before the request can even be registered.
Indeed, since it was adopted in 2001, many requesters have exercised the right to documents under this Regulation without the need to provide a postal address.
Furthermore, the Regulation states that requests for access to documents should be handled "promptly" and in Article 15 there is an explicit reference to the need to "develop good administrative practices in order to facilitate the exercise of the right of access guaranteed by this Regulation."
The refusal to register a request if the citizen involved does not provide a postal address is contrary to the principles of good administration which require that officials “shall in particular avoid restricting the rights of the citizens … when those restrictions … are not in a reasonable relation with the purpose of the action pursued” (Code of Good Administrative Behaviour, Article 6). Delaying registering a request for want of a postal address in the 21st Century when emails are a common means of communicating with public administrations is an unnecessary impediment. It also serves to delay the processing of requests sent to the institutions, which constitutes an unreasonable and disproportionate impediment to the exercise of the fundamental right of access to EU documents.
Finally, in your response you have not indicated which "procedural requirements" you are referring to, which leaves me little certainty as to which procedural steps I now need to follow in order to exercise my right of access to documents. I am therefore requesting a copy of these requirements in order to know where I stand legally.
I look forward to your prompt response.
Yours Sincerely,
E. Deront
Dear MrDeront,
With respect to your questions regarding the provision of a postal address
(copied below), please find our explanations hereunder.
On 1 April 2014, the postal address became a mandatory feature for the
purpose of introducing a request for access to documents. The decision to
ask for a postal address from applicants for access to documents was
triggered by the following considerations:
· The need to obtain legal certainty as regards the date of
receipt of the reply by the applicant under Regulation 1049/2001. Indeed,
as foreseen by Article 297 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU), […] decisions which specify to whom they are
addressed, shall be notified to those to whom they are addressed and shall
take effect upon such notification. Replies triggering the possibility for
administrative or judicial redress are therefore transmitted via
registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt. This requires an
indication of a valid postal address by the applicant;
· The need to direct the Commission's scarce resources first of
all to those requests which have been filed by "real" applicants. With
only a compulsory indication of an e-mail address, applicants can easily
introduce requests under an invented identity or under the identity of a
third person. Asking for a postal address helps the Commission to protect
the administration, as well as other citizens and legal persons, from
abuse;
· For similar reasons, asking for a compulsory indication of a
postal address enables the Commission services to verify whether Article
6(3) of the Regulation, on voluminous requests, is being evaded by
introducing several requests under different identities. Indeed, in its
Ryanair judgment, the General Court confirmed that Article 6(3) cannot be
evaded by splitting the application into a number of applications. The
Commission would like to point out that, in 2012/2013, it received some 57
confirmatory requests from what it suspects to be one single applicant
operating under 13 different identities;
· Knowing whether the applicant is an EU resident in the sense of
Article 2(1) of Regulation 1049/2001 is a precondition for the purpose of
correctly applying the exception in Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation
1049/2001 (protection of the privacy and integrity of the individual),
which has to be interpreted in accordance with Data Protection Regulation
45/2001. Article 9 of Regulation 45/2001 requires the adequacy of the
level of protection afforded by the third country or international
organisation when transmitting personal data to third-country residents or
legal persons. It follows that, in case of requests for documents which
include personal data, the correct application of the data protection
rules cannot be ensured in the absence of a postal address enabling the
Commission to ascertain that the minimum data protection standards will be
respected.
All of these considerations show that the request for access to documents
and the consequent processing of a postal address is not only appropriate
but also strictly necessary for the performance of a task carried out in
the public interest within the meaning of Article 5 (a) of Data Protection
Regulation 45/2001, namely providing a smooth and effective access to
documents.
The Commission has been applying this approach since 1 April 2014, because
of numerous problems encountered by the Commission in its previous
practice (legal uncertainty, false identities used etc.). We also would
like to point out that other institutions, such as the Court of Justice,
already ask for the address in their respective electronic forms for
access to documents requests.
We therefore kindly reiterate our request to you to provide a full postal
address, so we can duly register and handle your request. Please note
that, once we receive your postal address, we will register your request
for access as an initial application for access to documents in the
meaning of Article 6(1) of Regulation 1049/2001. The deadline for handling
your initial request shall run as from the moment of registration of your
request following the submission of your postal address.
Please be also informed that, as your application has not been dealt with
yet at the initial level pending the receipt of your postal address, your
message cannot be considered a confirmatory application in the meaning of
Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
ENER ACCES DOCUMENTS Team
European Commission
DG ENER
Unit A.1
DM24 08/046
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 298 17 47
Dear Energy (ENER),
Thank you for your reply that will be shared with the AsktheEU team.
Since I am interested in obtaining the documents requested and have already been waiting for a response to my request since May, please find Access Info's postal address below.
Cava San Miguel 8 4C
Madrid
28005
Spain
Please be also informed that, before you asked me to provide a postal address, the legal timeline for an answer from your side had already been passed. I thus kindly reiterate my request for access to these documents as soon as possible.
Yours faithfully,
Eva Deront, a EU citizen in flesh and bone
Dear Ms Deront,
Your request for access to documents has been registered under the above
mentioned reference number. 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 (8/07/2014).
Yours faithfully,
ENER ACCES DOCUMENTS Team
European Commission
DG ENER
Unit A.1
DM24 08/046
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 298 17 47
Dear Ms Deront,
Further to your initial application for access to documents introduced on
7 May 2014, and registered on 17 June 2014 under reference Gestdem
2014/2848. We regret to inform you that your application cannot be handled
pending the submission of a valid, real and personal (and not a generic)
postal address.
Indeed, on 1 April 2014, the submission of a postal address became a
mandatory feature for the purpose of introducing a request for access to
documents.
The decision to ask for a postal address from applicants for access to
documents was triggered by the following considerations:
* The need to obtain legal certainty as regards the date of receipt of
the reply by the applicant under Regulation 1049/2001. Indeed, as
foreseen by Article 297 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU), […] decisions which specify to whom they are
addressed, shall be notified to those to whom they are addressed and
shall take effect upon such notification. Replies triggering the
possibility for administrative or judicial redress are therefore
transmitted via registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt. This
requires an indication of a valid postal address by the applicant;
* The need to direct the Commission's scarce resources first of all to
those requests which have been filed by "real" applicants. With only a
compulsory indication of an e-mail address, applicants can easily
introduce requests under an invented identity or under the identity of
a third person. Asking for a postal address helps the Commission to
protect the administration, as well as other citizens and legal
persons, from abuse;
* For similar reasons, asking for a compulsory indication of a postal
address enables the Commission services to verify whether Article 6(3)
of the Regulation, on voluminous requests, is being evaded by
introducing several requests under different identities. Indeed, in
its Ryanair judgment, the General Court confirmed that Article 6(3)
cannot be evaded by splitting the application into a number of
applications. The Commission would like to point out that, in
2012/2013, it received some 57 confirmatory requests from what it
suspects to be one single applicant operating under 13 different
identities;
* Knowing whether the applicant is an EU resident in the sense of
Article 2(1) of Regulation 1049/2001 is a precondition for the purpose
of correctly applying the exception in Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation
1049/2001 (protection of the privacy and integrity of the individual),
which has to be interpreted in accordance with Data Protection
Regulation 45/2001. Article 9 of Regulation 45/2001 requires the
adequacy of the level of protection afforded by the third country or
international organisation when transmitting personal data to
third-country residents or legal persons. It follows that, in case of
requests for documents which include personal data, the correct
application of the data protection rules cannot be ensured in the
absence of a postal address enabling the Commission to ascertain that
the minimum data protection standards will be respected.
All of these considerations show that the request for and the consequent
processing of a valid, real and personal postal address is not only
appropriate but also strictly necessary for the performance of a task
carried out in the public interest within the meaning of Article 5 (a) of
Data Protection Regulation 45/2001, namely providing a smooth and
effective access to documents.
We therefore kindly urge you to please provide a valid, real and personal
postal address, so as to enable us to deal with your initial application
for access to documents in the meaning of Article 6(1) of Regulation
1049/2001. The deadline for handling your initial request shall run as
from the moment of the submission of a real, personal and valid postal
address.
Please be also informed that, as your application has not been dealt with
yet at the initial level pending the receipt of a real, valid and personal
postal address, your message cannot be considered a confirmatory
application in the meaning of Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Transparency (SG.B.4/rc)
Please provide me an email address where I could send my personal post address, so that it is not available on the internet.
Regards,
E.Deront
Dear Ms Deront,
You may address us directly at [email address].
Best regards,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
European Commission
Secretariat General
Unit SG.B4 – Transparency
Dear Ms Deront,
Thank you very much for providing your personal postal address.
Upon receipt of your postal address, which is a requirement for registration, your request below has been treated as follows:
- The GestDem 2014/2848 request that you sent to DG ENER has been closed.
- The request regarding ETHOS 1 and ETHOS 2 has been registered under GestDem 2014/2986 and attributed to DG RTD.
- The request regarding CORE has been registered under GestDem 2014/2987 and attributed to DG DEVCO.
In accordance with Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, you will receive a response to your request within 15 working days: 17/07/2014 for both 2014/2986 and 2014/2987.
If this deadline needs to be extended, you will be notified in due course.
Best regards,
Bernadett BERCZELI
Access to Documents
European Commission
Secretariat General
Unit SG.B4 – Transparency
Dear Ms Deront,
Following your request in subject, please find attached the information
concerning the CORE programme. This information has been gathered by the
European Delegation to Ukraine and I copy also for your convenience the
exchange we had on the topic.
With kind regards.
P. Daures
The CORE Programme has already expired or does not exist anymore. In
accordance with the Declaration of Principles on the CORE Programme the
international independent evaluation of results achieved and the Programme
itself should be carried out.Tthe UNDP office in Minsk is dealing with the
evaluation of the Programme.
The brief history of the programme is the following:
In the framework of NAP 2003 for Belarus (decision no. 2003/ 004-943,
contracting deadline 15 July 2006) and Nuclear Safety Programme 2003
(decision no. 2003/ 005-972 contracting deadline 29 October 2006) the
European Commission has allocated M2 € to implement the programme
“Co-operation for Rehabilitation of living conditions in Chernobyl
affected areas in Belarus” (CORE).
The restricted Call for Proposals for CORE programme was launched in
August 2004 (EuropeAid/120344/C/G/BY) with two deadlines for submission of
preliminary and final proposals on 4 November 2004 and 4 February 2005.
In total, 13 projects have been selected by the Evaluation Committee. In
accordance with the CORE procedures these projects have been sent to the
CORE Approval Board. Finally, the CORE Approval Board approved 12
projects. Such an approval, however, did not suffice to proceed with
implementation of the projects.
The Belarus’ legislation requires the prior approval by the Council of
Ministers and registration by the Ministry of Economy of Belarus for the
implementation of the international technical assistance programmes/
projects. In two years (2005-2006), the Belarusian Government managed to
register five CORE projects only. Due to this, five grant contracts were
signed.
The significant delays with the post-approval of seven projects by the
Council of Ministers of Belarus and their corresponding registration by
the Ministry of Economy of Belarus did not allow to start their
implementation before the contracting deadlines applicable to the CORE
budget lines. In application of the EC financial regulations, these
projects have been cancelled following the budget de-commitment.
National Action Programme 2005 for Belarus allocates M2.8€ to combat the
negative effects of the Chernobyl disaster in Belarus. It has been agreed
to implement this activity jointly with UNDP office in Belarus. Due to
this a Direct Agreement contract with UNDP as well as the project ToR has
been prepared. The ToR includes several tasks: a) Establishment of Centre
of Thyroid Pathology and b) Implementation of Area-Based Development
Approach.
On 23 September 2007, on 1 October 2007 and on 22 October 2007 the EC
Delegation was informed that three more projects:
· “Improving the Living Conditions of the Population Affected by
the Chernobyl Disaster” (Contractor: Hilfswerk Austria); EU contribution:
€ 157 626
· “Public University on Health Protection in Regions Affected by
the Chernobyl Disaster” (Contractor: Belarusian Association of UNESCO
Clubs); EU contribution € 120 000
· “Strengthening Smallholders' Agricultural Activities on
Radioactive Contaminated Lands of the Bragin District” (Contractor:
Formation pour L'Epanouissement et le Renouveau de la Terre) initial EU
contribution was €149 440, hoverer it will be revised taking into
account the recovery order to be submitted to the Contractor.
have been approved by the Council of Ministers of Belarus.
Due to this it was decided to re-finance these projects from NAP 2005.
Therefore, six CORE projects will be effectively implemented out of 12
selected and earmarked for financing by the EC.
CORE Programme
· Co-operation for Rehabilitation of Living Conditions in
Chernobyl Affected Areas in Belarus (CORE Programme) was created in 2003
with the total duration of 5 years as the complementary programme to the
State Programme for the Minimisation of Consequences of the Chernobyl NPP
Accident and Long-Term Rehabilitation of the Affected Areas.
· The Declaration of principles on CORE Programme has been signed
by 30 different donors, international and Belarus organisations. The
European Commission representing by the Delegation of the European
Commission to Ukraine and Belarus signed this Declaration on 02 December
2003. The EC was also a member of the CORE Approval Board.
· The objective of CORE programme was to improve the living
conditions of the population of the Belarus districts affected by the
Chernobyl disaster. It covered four regions: Bragin, Stolin, Chechersk and
Slavgorod.
· Priorities areas of CORE Programme were the following:
- Health care and surveillance;
- Economic and social development in the rural contaminated areas;
- Culture and education of children and youth, transmission of the
memory of the Chernobyl disaster;
- Radiological quality;
The EU was the major donor contributing to the alleviation on after
effects of the Chernobyl catastrophe. In the framework of the National
Action Programmes for Belarus 2003 and 2005 one of the priority areas of
the EU assistance has been focused on Belarus Chernobyl affected areas,
where the exposure to radiation did adversely affect the living condition
of the populations.
PASCAL DAURES
Head of Sector Nuclear Safety Preventive and Corrective Actions
[1]cid:image001.gif@01CF9A05.D3C8A610
European Commission
Directorate General for Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid
Unit B5 – Fight against Global Threats and Nuclear Safety
J59 04/05
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229-95602
[2][email address]
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]
Dear Madam,
We refer to your request for access to documents concerning the ETHOS 1
and 2 projects, registered on 26 June 2014 under the above mentioned
reference number.
Your application is currently being handled. However, we will not be in a
position to complete the handling of your application within the time
limit of 15 working days, which expires on 17 July 2014.
An extended time limit is needed as your request concerns historical
documents which in order to be identified require the examination of large
files held by another Service.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to documents. The new time limit expires on 8 August 2014.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
Liliane DE WOLF
Head of Unit
[1]cid:image001.gif@01CF0AE9.BBA1E200
European Commission
DG Research & Innovation
J1
ORBN 01/049
1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229-61073
[2][email address]
[3]http://ec.europa.eu/research
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://ec.europa.eu/research
Dear Madam,
We refer to your request for access to documents registered under the
above mentioned reference number.
We would like to inform you hereby that the processing of your application
is being finalised. Due to the involvement of two Commission’s DGs and the
old periods of the projects ETHOS 1 and ETHOS 2, the identification of
relevant documents needs some more time. You should receive a reply as
soon as it is approved by our hierarchy.
In the meantime, we can already provide you with some information which is
relevant for your request:
- ETHOS 1 was supported by the European Commission DG XII,
contract n° RODOS F14C-CT96-0006, from 1996 to 1998 of €126 168,00 granted
to four beneficiaries : CEPN, MUTADIS, INAPG et UTC
- ETHOS 2 was supported by the European Commission DGXI, contract
n° B7-5350/99/115994/MAR C2, from 200 to 2001, of € 145 885,00 granted to
the same beneficiaries
We truly apologize for this unexpected delay and for any inconvenience
this may cause.
We thank you very much in advance for your patience and kind
understanding.
Yours faithfully,
Liliane DE WOLF
Head of Unit
[1]cid:image001.gif@01CF1087.1393DAC0
European Commission
DG Research & Innovation
J1 Common Legal Support Service
ORBN 01/037
1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229-61073
[2][email address]
[3]http://ec.europa.eu/research
Dear Mr Daures,
Thank you for your answer to my request through the website "asktheEU". It
is technically not possible for me to reply you hence this direct mail.
Please do not forget to put the asktheeu email adress in CC so that our
exchanges can be made further publicly available.
Following the informations you gave on the CORE program, could you please
answer the below complementary questions:
- furnish the name and contact of the UNDP official or service dealing
with the evaluation of the CORE program. When will it be finished? (It is
now over 4 years since the end of the program)
- furnish the details of the allocation of the first 2003 NAP program (5
CORE projects among 12 approved): costs, beneficiaries...
- what happened to the project "support to mother and child care in
Chechersk district" proposed by the French NGO Médecins du monde and
"cancelled upon contractor´s request" as mentioned in the document "CORE
projects table new 05 12 07"? (how much has it been granted though?
Evaluation report?)
- related to the previous question: how much has been granted by the EC to
the "CORE health" program launched in 2005 which description is available
here:
[1]http://www.cepn.asso.fr/en/component/con...
?
Link: [2]File-List
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
Thank you very much in advance for this information.
Yours sincerely,
Eva Deront
References
Visible links
1. http://www.cepn.asso.fr/en/component/con...
2. file:///C:%5CUsers%5CLenovo%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml
3. file:///C:%5CUsers%5CLenovo%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx
4. file:///C:%5CUsers%5CLenovo%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml
[SENT 23 SEPTEMBER]
Dear Ms Deront,
We refer to your e-mail dated 25/06/2014 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on the same day, under the above mentioned
Gestdem reference number. Please find enclosed the reply of Directorate
General for Research and Innovation.
The original letter reply will be sent to you by registered mail with
acknowledgment of receipt.
We would like to apologise for the unexpected delay in the handling of
your application and thank you very much for your kind understanding.
Yours faithfully,
Liliane DE WOLF
Head of Unit
[1]cid:image001.gif@01CF1087.1393DAC0
European Commission
DG Research & Innovation
J1 Common Legal Support Service
ORBN 01/037
1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229-61073
[2][email address]
[3]http://ec.europa.eu/research
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://ec.europa.eu/research