Wir sind nicht sicher, ob die letzte Antwort auf diese Anfrage Informationen enthält – »falls Sie Cornelia Trentea sind, bitte melden Sich an und lassen es uns wissen.

Grants and contracts awarded by European Commission to Danish Institute for Human Rights

We're waiting for Cornelia Trentea to read recent responses and update the status.

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

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. Documents related to exclusion and selection criteria presented by Danish Institute for Human Rights as a condition for awarding the contracts mentioned by European Commission in its reply under this link http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/list_... and below:

- Grant 117.966,25 EUR – ref. JUST/2012/PROG/AG/3720
- Grant 994.775,16 EUR – ref. JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279
- Grant 221.813,66 EUR – ref. JUST/2011/PROG/AG/1909

2. All and any documents, including minutes, notes and correspondence between EC and DIHR related to public statements made by Danish authorities, statements accessible from here http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-...

and from here (page 6 – “Special considerations…”)
http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...

3. Documents related to any Special Considerations or Conditions set by European Commission (similarly with those set by Danish Ministry of Foreign Affair at page 6 “Special considerations”…”conditional grant to DIHR”).

4. Financial documents presented by DIHR in the frame of tender procedures organized by EC, showing if and where the amount mentioned in the Danish press article (3.2 million kroner in losses) was evidenced. These documents are: Balance sheet and Profit and Loss Account of DIHR.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Mrs. Trentea,

 

Please find below our replies to your questions sent as a follow-up
enquiry to your request for access to documents.

    

     

 Question  1: Documents related to exclusion and selection criteria
presented

     by Danish Institute for Human Rights as a condition for awarding

     the contracts mentioned by European Commission in its reply under

     this link

    
[1]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/list_...

     and below:

    

     - Grant 117.966,25 EUR – ref. JUST/2012/PROG/AG/3720

     - Grant 994.775,16 EUR – ref. JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279

     - Grant 221.813,66 EUR – ref. JUST/2011/PROG/AG/1909

 

Answer 1: In the framework of calls for proposals managed by DG Justice,
applicants generally have to submit the following documents in relation to
exclusion and selection criteria:

 

§              Official annual financial statements (Profit and loss
account and/or balance sheet) for the past 2 years, and, in the case of
grants exceeding € 500.000, an audit report certifying the accounts for
the last financial year available, produced by a certified external
auditor (not applicable for universities and public authorities);

§              Curriculum vitae of key staff performing the work in
connection with the project;

§              Annual technical/narrative report of the applicant
organisation for the previous year.

§              Partner declaration form (includes declaration on exclusion
criteria) (if relevant);

 

For the grants mentioned in your enquiry, the links to the relevant calls
for proposals (with the specific lists of documents required) can be found
here:  

[2]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/gra...
(for grant ref. JUST/2012/PROG/AG/3720)

[3]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/gra... (for grant
ref. JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279)

[4]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/gra... (for grant
ref. JUST/2011/PROG/AG/1909)    

 

 

In addition, a declaration on exclusion criteria is part of the
application form (see model attached).

 

 

 

Financial documents were submitted by DIHR only for grant ref.
JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279. Under the other two calls these documents were not
requested from public bodies.

 

Should you wish to request access to any of the above documents, please
let us know. Please also note that as they originate from DIHR, we will
need to consult DIHR on your request.

 

 

   Question  2: All and any documents, including minutes, notes and

     correspondence between EC and DIHR related to public statements

     made by Danish authorities, statements accessible from here

    
[5]http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-...

    

     and from here (page 6 – “Special considerations…”)

    
[6]http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...

 

Answer 2:  To the best of our knowledge there have been no documents
(minutes / notes/correspondence) related to the public statements
indicated in your enquiry.  

     

Question 3:  Documents related to any Special Considerations or Conditions

     set by European Commission (similarly with those set by Danish

     Ministry of Foreign Affair at page 6 “Special

     considerations”…”conditional grant to DIHR”).

 

Answer 3:  The European Commission has set no special conditions or
considerations for the award of grants to DIHR.

     

     Question 4: Financial documents presented by DIHR in the frame of
tender

     procedures organized by EC, showing if and where the amount

     mentioned in the Danish press article (3.2 million kroner in

     losses) was evidenced. These documents are: Balance sheet and

     Profit and Loss Account of DIHR.

 

  Answer 4: No public procurement contract has been attributed by the
European Commission to DIHR, hence this not applicable.

 

 

Best regards,

 

DG Justice Unit A4 - Programme Management

European Commission

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/list_...
2. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/gra...
3. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/gra...
4. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/gra...
5. http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-...
6. http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...

Cornelia Trentea

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Thank you for your reply.

(1) As to your offer made in Answer 1:

I confirm that I request access to all documents mentioned under your Answer 1.

(2)On your Answer 4:

I kindly request to review your decision, because the financial documents to which I requested access are indeed applicable to Grants agreements.

Please refer to Article 131 p.(3) and (4) and Article 132 of new Financial Regulation (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU...) in conjunction to article 202 RAP (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU...).

Therefore I renew my request to access financial documents related to grants awarded, as specified in both responses.

Thank you in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

Dear Ms Trentea,

We acknowledge receipt of your renewed request. Please note that the deadline for reply has been extended to 05/06.

Regarding 1), we will consult Danish Institute on whether we can disclose the referenced documents they have submitted in the framework of the three calls for proposals to you.

Re 2), you have requested access to "Financial documents presented by DIHR in the frame of tender procedures organized by EC, showing if and where the amount mentioned in the Danish press article (3.2 million kroner in losses) was evidenced. These documents are: Balance sheet and Profit and Loss Account of DIHR." The term "tender procedures" is used by the Financial Regulation in the context of public procurement procedures, not of grants award procedures. If you meant "grant award procedures", as explained below, DG Justice has received financial documents from DIHR only for grant ref. JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279. These documents are covered by the first question.

Best regards,

DG Justice Unit A4 - Programme Management
European Commission

Zitate anzeigen

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

Dear Mrs. Trentea,
Please note that following a consultation of the Danish Institute of Human
Rights (as the author of the documents you have requested), we can now
provide access to most of the documents mentioned in your earlier enquiry
based on Regulation 1049/2001/EC.
Given the volume and format of these documents (making it rather difficult
for the documentation to be sent by e-mail), we would like to ask you to
kindly indicate a postal address where you wish to receive the documents
requested or to suggest an alternative manner in which you wish to access
these documents.
Best Regards,
The FRC Team
 
 

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Trentea,

Please find enclosed a letter signed by Ms Le Bail in reply to your
request for access to documents.

Yours sincerely,

The FRC Team

 

 

Cornelia Trentea

Dear Ms Le Bail,

I refer to your letter published here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... and to the previous response of EC dated 13 June 2013, by which I was requested to suggest an alternative manner in which I wish to access the financial documents of DIHR.
Thank you for these communications.

I would prefer that the documents are made available publicly because the issues brought into public attention by Danish authorities were made known also publicly(see above). I understand that due to technical issues faced by EC, this public availability of the requested documents is not possible.

Therefore:

As a first alternative, I suggest that European Commission propose DIHR to publish its financial statements in DIHR Internet website. DIHR is a public entity under the obligation to publish their financial statements and to make them available transparently.

As second alternative, I suggest that EC blanks/darks the relevant parts which can put in danger privacy of individuals and then asks technical support of ASKTHEEU organization for publishing the requested documents in asktheeu internet site. (partial access or anonimized access).

If these proposals are not accepted by European Commission, as a third alternative and as requested via your Letter dated 1st July 2013 I will provide an postal address to EC services. I will do this after receiving EC relevant notification as to the alternative chosen.

Within the third alternative, I request EC authorization for transferring those financial documents to an specialized organization in public integrity, which possesses the necessary technical means to deal with electronic documents of high level capacity and atypical formats. If this is the case, this public organization could cover also linguistic aspects (translations of documents from Danish to English, German or French) and to make them publicly available in all versions (ensuring online electronic access).

Thank you in advance for informing me which of the 3 alternatives is approved by European Commission.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

Dear Ms. Trentea,

 

We would like to thank you for your e-mail of 2 July concerning your
request for access to documents Gest-Dem 2013-1654.

 

Insofar as your request for the Commission to propose to DIHR to publish
their financial statements on their website is concerned, please note that
DIHR is an independent organisation and the Commission cannot intervene in
its decisions.

 

Insofar as  the 2nd alternative suggested by you is concerned (more
specifically that "....EC  asks  technical support of ASKTHEEU
organization for publishing the  requested documents in asktheeu internet
site..."), kindly note that this would mobilise a disproportionate amount
of resources in view of the volume of documents to be sent.

 

In view of the above, we would like to reiterate our request of 13 June
2013 and ask you to provide a postal address to which we can send a memory
stick with all the documents to which you have been granted access on the
basis of your request registered as Gest-Dem 2013-1654.

 

Please note that - following the receipt of the aforesaid documents - you
may not reproduce or disseminate the documents for commercial purposes
without prior consent given by the Commission. Furthermore, concerning the
documents originating from third parties (in this particular case DIHR),
please note  that these documents are disclosed for information only and
cannot be re-used without the agreement of the originator, who hold a
copyright on it. These documents do not reflect the position of the
Commission and cannot be quoted as such. 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

The FRC Team

      

 

Cornelia Trentea

Dear Secretariat General (SG), Dear Ms Le Bail,

I received reply of your services. Thank you. Due to sensitive issues detected in this reply (like limitation of rights), I would like to bring into your attention the following:

The purpose of Council Regulation 2001/1049 is: “to ensure the widest possible access to documents”, in “easiest possible exercise of this right” (article 1 (a) (b)).

On your first paragraph:

“Insofar as your request for the Commission to propose to DIHR to publish their financial statements on their website is concerned, please note that DIHR is an independent organization and the Commission cannot intervene in its decisions”

Please be kindly reminded that:
DIHR is an independent organization to which transparency principle applies in the same manner as for the rest of thousands of similar organization (public entities). I give here only a few examples to demonstrate that all those organizations publish their accounts in Internet website:

1. In this link http://www.ilga-europe.org/home/about_us... is presented the “Balance Sheet” and “Income and Expenditure Accounts” of a Recipient of Grants of European Commission, like DIHR.

As easy observable, those 2 financial documents are provided in an accessible format (word and pdf), exactly as is requested by Regulation and EU principle of transparency.

I requested access to such formats of DIHR financial documents, easy to publish and disseminate not voluminous package of documents, probably in Danish, difficult to analyze. Having in mind this clarification, I would like to reiterate my request to be granted access to documents in appropriate format and via asktheeu website.

2. See also these links of http://ar2012.ramboll.com/financial-stat...
http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/pu... (page 9).

3. For instance, several of the recipients of EC grants listed in this link http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/fil... have published their financial documents in their websites with the exception of DIHR (positioned as 29 in the list).

Moreover, for some recipients of grants, European Commission performs periodic audits. In one of the link above it is stated : “ILGA-Europe’s accounts are audited by an external auditor twice a year. ILGA-Europe also gets audited by the European Commission services periodically (ex-post audit) in accordance with its grant agreement.”

I seen several audit reports for several EC recipients of grants on Internet.

For DIHR I see this link of 2013 http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...
where, at section “Financial issues, including the National Audit report 2013” is stated:

“The report has at the time of writing not been finally approved. The overall conclusion of the report have, however, been presented to the MFA controller team on 15 April. The administrative procedures and internal control system did not on a general basis fully live up to expected standards. However it was noted that the administration had been improved and that the management of the external funding and grants in general had been improved. DIHR was categorized with the status “not fully satisfactory” which was an improvement from last year” (2012).

Below to “not fully satisfactory” is only the last level called “not satisfactory” which means the worst level possible. This is the year when several EU grants and contracts were awarded to DIHR.

Did EC perform a similar audit into accounts of DIHR as the audit performed in ILGA accounts?

Additionally, I would like to clarify the following important legal issue:

The Regulation 2001/1049 says that it shall apply “…to all documents held by an institution, that is to say, documents drawn up or received by it and in its possession, in all areas of activity of the European Union.”

I request additional clarifications:
- if European Commission received financial documents from DIHR during audits performed (like the ones at ILGA) or
-if European Commission asked for this financial documents within the tendering or grants procedures organized by European Commission in 2012 and previous years.

The second question should be reconciled with the reply of EC provided to me on 22 May 2013 which reads as follows: (“The term "tender procedures" is used by the Financial Regulation in the context of public procurement procedures, not of grants award procedures. If you meant "grant award procedures", as explained below, DG Justice has received financial documents from DIHR only for grant ref. JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279. These documents are covered by the first question.”)

This question it should also be reconciled with the document published by Foreign Ministry of Denmark and which talks directly and implicitly about not-satisfactory level of management of the external funding and grants.

So European Commission paid substantial amounts to DIHR and, according to official documents issued by Danish Authorities and available publicly in Internet, DIHR managed that money “not fully satisfactory” (in 2013) and “not satisfactory” (in 2012).

Please be recalled that in 2012/2013 European Commission awarded a contract to DIHR as can be seen here at position 29 http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/fil... ( 200.030,71 EUR).

This is the context I ask if the financial documents you granted me access, were remitted by DIHR to European Commission within the above mentioned Grant Procedure of 2012/2013 or if they were requested expressly by EC for the purposes of honoring the present request to access the financial documents of DIHR? The reply to this question is important for the purposes of copyright issues invoked by EC in its last paragraph.

I see that EC invokes technical difficulties in complying with a fundamental right, i.e. honoring requests to access documents .

In your second paragraph is written:

“Insofar as the 2nd alternative suggested by you is concerned (more specifically that "....EC asks technical support of ASKTHEEU organization for publishing the requested documents in asktheeu internet site..."), kindly note that this would mobilize a disproportionate amount of resources in view of the volume of documents to be sent.”

I requested financial documents in formats like the ones published by ILGA (see above). With these clarifications provided I reiterate my request to have access to such format of documents, which certainly eliminates the technical difficulties invoked.

If EC is in legal possession of DIHR financial documents (see art. 2(3) of Council Regulation 2001/1049) and if DIHR agreed to make disclosure, I do not see any problem in publishing the respective documents in AsktheEU website. Otherwise there could be a suspicion which raise inevitable questions (on non-observance of provisions of Regulation, potential protection, potential involuntary closing eyes to issues like the ones mentioned above on “not satisfactory management of EU grants” etc. ).

On your last paragraph:

“Please note that - following the receipt of the aforesaid documents – you may not reproduce or disseminate the documents for commercial purposes without prior consent given by the Commission".

I certainly do not have any intentions to make commerce with the financial documents of DIHR to which you granted me access.

I take note that you limit the right to use the released documents and this is probably done within Article 16 of Regulation which talks about copyright.

I respectfully request a full motivation of your decision to limit the right to use those documents, not for commercial issues as you mentioned, but for instance for legal purposes enshrined in EU legislation (i.e. before administrative bodies, juridical bodies, etc) or simply for ethical purposes. (i.e. legal entities as DIHR in receipt of EU taxpayers money in form of grants, have to be transparent).

As to the copyright invoked for DIHR financial documents in order to limits a possible subsequent publication, I request additional information. I have doubts that this argument is valid in the given context of problems occurred at DIHR as can be seen here http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Cornelia Trentea

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

In relation to your paragraph below:
"In view of the above, we would like to reiterate our request of 13 June 2013 and ask you to provide a postal address to which we can send a memory stick with all the documents to which you have been granted access on the basis of your request registered as Gest-Dem 2013-1654",

I would like to outline that according to Regulation 1049 the requester is entitled to receive the requested documents and information in electronic version if they exist in such a form.

This is the case here, because as you pointed above, you want to send me to my postal address a memory stick with all the documents to which I have been granted access.

Taking view to the functioning rules of Organization "Access Info Europe" domiciled in Calle Príncipe de Anglona 5, 28005 Madrid, Spain (including website AsktheEU, domiciled as well within the EU borders),

Having regard to the related policy of asktheeu website stipulated here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/privacy#..., to which we both adhered: I when sent my request and you when granted me access and informed me via this website,

Having regard to the possibility offered by asktheeu website, mentioned in the last paragraph of this link http://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/privacy#...,

- In order to reconcile with my rights and your obligations I make the following proposal:

Please send the memory stick directly to the postal address mentioned above and the website representatives will take care about uploading the financial documents of DIHR in AskTheEU website. There is no disproportionate effort as this website offer this services on its own will.

Alternatively you can send the electronic content of the memory stick to my email and I will comply with the last paragraph of this link http://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/privacy#....

I prefer these two options and this is in line with relevant provisions of Regulation 1049.

If you insist to send documents (memory stick) to a postal address please use the postal address mentioned above.

If for any reasons you prefer my home address or any other postal address, I will submit it to you. It is obvious that by sending me the memory stick in any of the alternatives specified above you agree to the last paragraph of this link http://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/privacy#... so to the publication of the content of the memory stick in website asktheeu. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms. Trentea,

 

Please find enclosed a copy of letter that has been sent to you by
registered mail (to the address indicated in your e-mail of 15 July, more
specifically  “Access Info Europe, Calle Principe de Anglona 5, 28005
Madrid, Spain) in relation to your request for access to documents
registered as GESTDEM 2013-1654.

 

Best Regards,

 

The FRAC Team

 

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

 
Dear Ms. Trentea,
 
Thank you for your e-mail of 12 July, which has been attributed to us for
reply. Please find our reply to individual issues raised in your enquiry
below (in the text of your e-mail, highlighted in yellow). 
 
Best Regards,
 
The FRC Team
 
 
From: Cornelia Trentea [[1]mailto:[FOI #477 email]]
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2013 11:30 AM
To: JUST FRC PROGRAMME
Subject: Re: Your request for access to documents Gest-Dem 2013-1654
 
     Dear Secretariat General (SG), Dear Ms Le Bail,
 
     I received reply of your services. Thank you. Due to sensitive
     issues detected in this reply (like limitation of rights), I would
     like to bring into your attention the following:
 
     The purpose of Council Regulation 2001/1049 is: “to ensure the
     widest possible access to documents”, in “easiest possible exercise
     of this right” (article 1 (a) (b)).
 
     On your first paragraph:
 
     “Insofar as your request for the Commission to propose to DIHR to
     publish their financial statements on their website is concerned,
     please note that DIHR is an independent organization and the
     Commission cannot intervene in its decisions”
 
     Please be kindly reminded that:
     DIHR is an independent organization to which transparency principle
     applies in the same manner as for the rest of thousands of similar
     organization (public entities). I give here only a few examples to
     demonstrate that all those organizations publish their accounts in
     Internet website:
 
     1. In this link
    
[2]http://www.ilga-europe.org/home/about_us...
     is presented the “Balance Sheet” and “Income and Expenditure
     Accounts” of a Recipient of Grants of European Commission, like
     DIHR.
 
     As easy observable, those 2 financial documents are provided in an
     accessible format (word and pdf), exactly as is requested by
     Regulation and EU principle of transparency.
 
     I requested access to such formats of DIHR financial documents,
     easy to publish and disseminate not voluminous package of
     documents, probably in Danish, difficult to analyze. Having in mind
     this clarification, I would like to reiterate my request to be
     granted access to documents in appropriate format and via asktheeu
     website.
     Please note the provisions of  Regulation 1049/2001  specifying in
Art 2(3) the following: “This Regulation shall apply to all documents held
by an institution, that is to say, documents drawn up or received by it
and in its possession, in all areas of activity of the European Union….”.
In accordance with these provisions, only documents currently in the
possession of an institution (in this instance of the European Commission)
can be provided, in the format in which they are available. Incidentally,
the requested documentation was sent to you (to the postal address of
“Access Info Europe”, indicated by you for this purpose in your e-mail of
13 July 2013, in electronic format on a USB storage device).
     2. See also these links of
     [3]http://ar2012.ramboll.com/financial-stat...
    
[4]http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/pu...
     (page 9).
 
     3. For instance, several of the recipients of EC grants listed in
     this link
    
[5]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/fil...
     have published their financial documents in their websites with the
     exception of DIHR (positioned as 29 in the list).
    
 
     Moreover, for some recipients of grants, European Commission
     performs periodic audits. In one of the link above it is stated :
     “ILGA-Europe’s accounts are audited by an external auditor twice a
     year. ILGA-Europe also gets audited by the European Commission
     services periodically (ex-post audit) in accordance with its grant
     agreement.”
 
     I seen several audit reports for several EC recipients of grants on
     Internet.
 
     For DIHR I see this link of 2013
    
[6]http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...
     where, at section “Financial issues, including the National Audit
     report 2013” is stated:
 
     “The report has at the time of writing not been finally approved.
     The overall conclusion of the report have, however, been presented
     to the MFA controller team on 15 April. The administrative
     procedures and internal control system did not on a general basis
     fully live up to expected standards. However it was noted that the
     administration had been improved and that the management of the
     external funding and grants in general had been improved. DIHR was
     categorized with the status “not fully satisfactory” which was an
     improvement from last year” (2012).
 
     Below to “not fully satisfactory” is only the last level called
     “not satisfactory” which means the worst level possible. This is
     the year when several EU grants and contracts were awarded to DIHR.
 
     Did EC perform a similar audit into accounts of DIHR as the audit
     performed in ILGA accounts?
The Danish Institute for Human Rights was audited under the 2012 DG
JUSTICE Direct Management audit work-programme under the FRAC programme.
 
     Additionally, I would like to clarify the following important legal
     issue:
 
     The Regulation 2001/1049 says that it shall apply “…to all
     documents held by an institution, that is to say, documents drawn
     up or received by it and in its possession, in all areas of
     activity of the European Union.”
 
     I request additional clarifications:
     - if European Commission received financial documents from DIHR
     during audits performed (like the ones at ILGA) or
     -if European Commission asked for this financial documents within
     the tendering or grants procedures organized by European Commission
     in 2012 and previous years.
The audits, performed according to International Audit Standards, are
limited to verifying whether the costs declared by the beneficiary of the
grant for the relevant co-financed project, were real and supported in all
material aspects. Such audits do not focus on the financial health of the
organisation.
 
The Commission did not request any financial documentation within the
tendering or grants procedures, given the fact that DIHR has the status of
a public body and is as such exempt from the verification of financial
capacity. Financial documentation was nevertheless submitted by DIHR as
part of the procedure concerning grant JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279, as pointed
out in our previous reply (mentioned below).
 
 
     The second question should be reconciled with the reply of EC
     provided to me on 22 May 2013 which reads as follows: (“The term
     "tender procedures" is used by the Financial Regulation in the
     context of public procurement procedures, not of grants award
     procedures. If you meant "grant award procedures", as explained
     below, DG Justice has received financial documents from DIHR only
     for grant ref. JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279. These documents are covered
     by the first question.”)
 
     This question it should also be reconciled with the document
     published by Foreign Ministry of Denmark and which talks directly
     and implicitly about not-satisfactory level of management of the
     external funding and grants.
 
     So European Commission paid substantial amounts to DIHR and,
     according to official documents issued by Danish Authorities and
     available publicly in Internet, DIHR managed that money “not fully
     satisfactory” (in 2013) and “not satisfactory” (in 2012).
 
     Please be recalled that in 2012/2013 European Commission awarded a
     contract to DIHR as can be seen here at position 29
    
[7]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/fil...
     ( 200.030,71 EUR).
 
     This is the context I ask if the financial documents you granted me
     access, were remitted by DIHR to European Commission within the
     above mentioned Grant Procedure of 2012/2013 or if they were
     requested expressly by EC for the purposes of honoring the present
     request to access the financial documents of DIHR? The reply to
     this question is important for the purposes of copyright issues
     invoked by EC in its last paragraph.
Please note that in line with Art.2 (3) of Regulation 1049/2001  the
documents to which you have been granted access are those that were
submitted by DIHR within the framework of the above-mentioned procedure,
as the Regulation does not foresee a situation where the Commission would
request documents which are currently not held by it in order to provide
them to a party that has requested such documents on the basis of
Regulation 2001/1049. 
 
 
     I see that EC invokes technical difficulties in complying with a
     fundamental right, i.e. honoring requests to access documents .
 
     In your second paragraph is written:
 
     “Insofar as the 2nd alternative suggested by you is concerned (more
     specifically that "....EC asks technical support of ASKTHEEU
     organization for publishing the requested documents in asktheeu
     internet site..."), kindly note that this would mobilize a
     disproportionate amount of resources in view of the volume of
     documents to be sent.”
 
     I requested financial documents in formats like the ones published
     by ILGA (see above). With these clarifications provided I reiterate
     my request to have access to such format of documents, which
     certainly eliminates the technical difficulties invoked.
   As mentioned above,  please note the provisions of  Regulation
1049/2001  specifying in Art 2(3) the following: “This Regulation shall
apply to all documents held by an institution, that is to say, documents
drawn up or received by it
and in its possession, in all areas of activity of the European Union….”.
In accordance with these provisions, only documents currently in the
possession of an institution (in this instance of the European Commission)
can be provided, in the format in which they are available. Incidentally,
the requested documentation was sent to you (to the postal address of
“Access Info Europe”, indicated by you for this purpose in your e-mail of
13 July 2013, in electronic format on a USB storage device). We cannot
guarantee that the format of financial documentation would be entirely
identical to that used by other organisations, in this instance by ILGA.
 
     If EC is in legal possession of DIHR financial documents (see art.
     2(3) of Council Regulation 2001/1049) and if DIHR agreed to make
     disclosure, I do not see any problem in publishing the respective
     documents in AsktheEU website. Otherwise there could be a suspicion
     which raise inevitable questions (on non-observance of provisions
     of Regulation, potential protection, potential involuntary closing
     eyes to issues like the ones mentioned above on “not satisfactory
     management of EU grants” etc. ).
 
 
         On your last paragraph:
 
     “Please note that - following the receipt of the aforesaid
     documents – you may not reproduce or disseminate the documents for
     commercial purposes without prior consent given by the Commission".
 
 
     I certainly do not have any intentions to make commerce with the
     financial documents of DIHR to which you granted me access.
 
     I take note that you limit the right to use the released documents
     and this is probably done within Article 16 of Regulation which
     talks about copyright.
 
     I respectfully request a full motivation of your decision to limit
     the right to use those documents, not for commercial issues as you
     mentioned, but for instance for legal purposes enshrined in EU
     legislation (i.e. before administrative bodies, juridical bodies,
     etc) or simply for ethical purposes. (i.e. legal entities as DIHR
     in receipt of EU taxpayers money in form of grants, have to be
     transparent).
Kindly note that the phrase quoted by you represents a standard disclaimer
which applies exclusively to potential commercial use and does not
therefore seem to be relevant to your envisaged usage, insofar as we can
assess it.
 
 
     As to the copyright invoked for DIHR financial documents in order
     to limits a possible subsequent publication, I request additional
     information. I have doubts that this argument is valid in the given
     context of problems occurred at DIHR as can be seen here
    
[8]http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...
The documents requested by you have been disclosed for information only
and their  originator may hold a copyright on them. Should you envisage
any usage that might infringe a possible copyright of the originator of
these documents, we would invite you to contact directly their originator
(in  this instance Danish Institute for Human Rights), for information on
whether or not individual documents are covered by copyright and – if
applicable - for agreement with the usage intended.  
     Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
 
     Yours faithfully,
 
     Cornelia Trentea
 
    

Zitate anzeigen

Cornelia Trentea

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

May I kindly ask you to resubmit your reply in such a way that the demarcation between my questions and your replies is clearly made? Your replies are not separated from my Requests, the yellow highlight you say that you made is not visible and therefore the Replies are confusing.

It is difficult to understand where my question ends and where your reply begins. There are no demarcations symbols.

According to EU Ombudsman Decisions and good practice, when confronted with a request for access, an institution should first identify the documents and information covered by this request.

This requires establishing a List of the relevant documents and information, unless the Applicant has already done so himself/herself. Such a preliminary step is necessary to allow for a specific and individual examination of the information and documents requested.

Thank you in advance for resending your reply in a readable format.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Cornelia Trentea hat eine Nachricht hinterlassen ()

As the Replies provided are not separated from my Questions, below can be find an overview of the Q&A:

My Question nr. 1 of 13 July 2013

“Did EC perform a similar audit into accounts of DIHR as the audit performed in ILGA accounts?”

Reply nr 1. by European Commission/SG dated 26 July 2013

“The Danish Institute for Human Rights was audited under the 2012 DG JUSTICE Direct Management audit work-programme under the FRAC programme”.

My Question nr. 2 of 13 July 2013

“ I request additional clarifications: - if European Commission received financial documents from DIHR during audits performed (like the ones at ILGA) or -if European Commission asked for this financial documents within the tendering or grants procedures organized by European Commission in 2012 and previous years”.

Reply nr 2. by European Commission/SG dated 26 July 2013

“The audits, performed according to International Audit Standards, are limited to verifying whether the costs declared by the beneficiary of the grant for the relevant co-financed project, were real and supported in all material aspects. Such audits do not focus on the financial health of the organisation.

The Commission did not request any financial documentation within the tendering or grants procedures, given the fact that DIHR has the status of a public body and is as such exempt from the verification of financial capacity. Financial documentation was nevertheless submitted by DIHR as part of the procedure concerning grant JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279, as pointed out in our previous reply (mentioned below)”

My Question nr. 3 of 13 July 2013

“Please be recalled that in 2012/2013 EC awarded a contract to DIHR as can be seen here at position 29 http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/fil... (200.030,71 EUR). This is the context I ask if the financial documents you granted me access, were remitted by DIHR to European Commission within the above mentioned Grant Procedure of 2012/2013 or if they were requested expressly by EC for the purposes of honoring the present request to access the financial documents of DIHR? The reply to this question is important for the purposes of copyright issues invoked by EC in its last paragraph.”

Reply nr 3. by European Commission/SG dated 26 July 2013

“Please note that in line with Art.2 (3) of Regulation 1049/2001 the documents to which you have been granted access are those that were submitted by DIHR within the framework of the above-mentioned procedure, as the Regulation does not foresee a situation where the Commission would request documents which are currently not held by it in order to provide
them to a party that has requested such documents on the basis of Regulation 2001/1049”.

My Question nr. 4 of 13 July 2013

“I respectfully request a full motivation of your decision to limit the right to use those documents, not for commercial issues as you mentioned, but for instance for legal purposes enshrined in EU legislation (i.e. before administrative bodies, juridical bodies, etc) or simply for ethical purposes. (i.e. legal entities as DIHR in receipt of EU taxpayers money in form of grants, have to be transparent).

Reply nr 4. by European Commission/SG dated 26 July 2013

“Kindly note that the phrase quoted by you represents a standard disclaimer which applies exclusively to potential commercial use and does not therefore seem to be relevant to your envisaged usage, insofar as we can assess it”.

My Question nr. 5 of 13 July 2013

“As to the copyright invoked for DIHR financial documents in order to limits a possible subsequent publication, I request additional information. I have doubts that this argument is valid in the given context of problems occurred at DIHR as can be seen here http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...

Reply nr 5. by European Commission/SG dated 26 July 2013

“The documents requested by you have been disclosed for information only and their originator may hold a copyright on them. Should you envisage any usage that might infringe a possible copyright of the originator of these documents, we would invite you to contact directly their originator (in this instance Danish Institute for Human Rights), for information on whether or not individual documents are covered by copyright and – if applicable - for agreement with the usage intended”.

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Based on your replies, which I separated from my questions and posted them in "Annotation section" I would appreciate a lot to be granted access to the following documents:

1. Audit Report mentioned in EC Reply nr 1 (please refer to the “Annotations” section). If full access is not possible, I request partial access to that Report, with the name deleted (Regulation 45/2001).

2. International Audit Standards mentioned in EC Reply nr 2. If there is in place a transposition of these International Audit Standards into European Audit Standards, I request access also to such European Standards.

3. In accordance to article 131(3) FR , “the application (for grants) shall state the legal status of the applicant and demonstrate his or her financial and operational capacity to carry out the proposed action or work programme. For that purpose the applicant shall submit a declaration on his or her honour (…)”

I request access to the Declarations submitted by DIHR under Article 131(3) of EU Financial Rules 966/2012 for the following grants

- Grant 117.966,25 EUR – ref. JUST/2012/PROG/AG/3720
- Grant 994.775,16 EUR – ref. JUST/2009/FRAC/AG/1279
- Grant 221.813,66 EUR – ref. JUST/2011/PROG/AG/1909
and any other grants awarded to DIHR by European Commission.

I request access to those declarations in the blanked form, so in such a way that
protection of names inserted in those declarations are fully respected and ensured in light with requirements of Data Protection Regulation 45/2011. I also respectfully request that principle of transparency applicable to grant agreements is observed.

4. All Audit or Verification reports performed by responsible authorizing officer or his/her team under the legal requirements of Article 131(3) of EU Financial Rules 966/2012. In situation of exemptions applied to DIHR and non-existence of reports mentioned at point 2 above, I request access to all Risk Assessment Reports, containing the reasons of granting such exemption to DIHR.

5. All relevant documents showing when exactly European Commission became aware about the situation described in official documents by Danish Authorities and / or media awareness:

http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-...

http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...

(please make an automatic search by word “irregularities”)
http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...

I respectfully request EC interpretation of this paragraph inserted by Danish Authorities in their Public Document accessible from the first link above:

“No criminal activity was discovered but apparently old deficits of some 3.2 m. DKK were transferred to non-existing projects solely created for this purpose.”

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

Finally I request access to documents / information showing how is treated one applicant / tenderer

-who participate to a Grant procedure or a Procurement Procedure organized by an EU institution

-present financial documents like “Balance Sheet” and “Profit and Losses Accounts” which contains old losses transferred in non-existing projects, solely created to place those losses

- this practice is not known by tenderer`s own National authorities but at one moment this practice is discovered and addressed accordingly by tenderer`s own National authorities and is framed using word “irregularities” or “not fully satisfactory”, “not satisfactory” management of the external funding and grants (so including grants from EU institutions)

How is framed by EC such a situation like the one described above taking view about the provisions of relevant legislation available here http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/about-us/... , particularly article 1 of Council Act of 26 July 1995 drawing up the Convention on the protection of the European Communities’ financial interests [Official Journal C 316 of 27.11.1995]. accessible from here
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU...

I respectfully request information showing if such transferring of old losses in non-existent projects is envisaged in the International Audit Standards invoked by European Commission in its Reply nr 2 (see “annotation” section).
Thank you very much in advance for your replies.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Cornelia TRENTEA,

1 Attachment

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

This is just to let you know that the USB storage device, containing the electronic version of DIHR financial documents http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r..., sent by your services on 18 July 2013 to Access Info Europe, Madrid, SPAIN did not arrive yet.

I would appreciate if you could check if the USB was not returned to European Commission. I checked with the representatives of Access Info Europe and they confirmed that the USB did not arrive.
Thank you very much.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

European Commission published under this link http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/563/r... the EVALUATION REPORT for the Restricted Call for Proposals for Action Grants JUST/2012/PROG/AG7AD.
Foreseen amount 4 590 000 Euro.
One of the winners of grant is Danish Institute for Human Rights – DIHR (see position 18 in Evaluation Report.
Grant Amount allocated - 200,030.71 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/563/r... ).

At point 2.2 of the Evaluation Report (“Exclusion Criteria”) is mentioned that “The evaluation of the exclusion criteria was carried out by Assessors in unit A4.”

The call for proposals JUST/2012/PROG/AG7AD was published on the EUROPA website of the Directorate-General for Justice" on 08/05/2012. The evaluation of the applications was completed in 14/12/2012.

In 12 January 2012 (by 11 months before the evaluation was completed) Danish Foreign Ministry cut off funding for DIHR after discovering “irregularities”. A national newspaper “The Copenhagen Post” published a press article on the matter:
http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-... informing the readers that:
“The Danish Institute for Human Rights (Institut for Menneskerettigheder) is suspected of “a number of irregularities” that have led to losses of 3,192,000 kroner, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated.
The accountancy firm Price Waterhouse Coopers went through the institute’s records and found many errors including, according to the Foreign Ministry, “the deliberate transfer of old losses to non-existing projects that were created for this purpose”.

The ministry has now cut off funding to the Institute for Human Rights with immediate effect, and the institute has been asked for a thorough explanation”.

I request access to the relevant annex of the Evaluation Report JUST/2012/PROG/AG7AD – a document concluded by the Assessors and approved by Evaluation Committee in respect of point 2.2. “Exclusion Criteria”.
This point reads:
“2.2. Exclusion criteria
Regarding the exclusion criteria, the applicants declared on their honour that they are not in one of the situations of exclusion mentioned in the Financial Regulation and in section 5.1. of the call for proposals”.

Section 5.1 of Grant File http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... reads:

“5.1. Exclusion Criteria
The applicant and partners must certify that they are not in one of the situations listed in
Articles 93(1), 94 and 96(2)(a) of the Financial Regulation10. A full list of these circumstances is included in the Application Form and in the Partner Declaration Form”.

The link 10 to old Financial Regulation was provided in the Grant File and is available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU...
As you can see, Article 93(1) requires that “Candidates or tenderers shall be excluded from participation in procurement procedures if:

(a) they (…) have suspended business activities, are the subject of proceedings concerning those matters, or are in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for in national legislation or regulations”;

I request access to the documents concluded by Assessors in Unit 4 and approved by Evaluation Committee in respect of Article 93(1)(a) . I also request access to information documents showing if the Assessors Team addressed the situation existent at the moment of evaluation at DIHR. If applicable, relevant motivation why the application of article 93(1) (a) second part, was waived for DIHR.
In 12 January 2012 in “The Copenhagen Post” it was made quite clear that “The ministry has now cut off funding to the Institute for Human Rights with immediate effect, and the institute has been asked for a thorough explanation”.
This question was raised with some time in advance before evaluation started.
Similarly, Article 93(1) (c) requires that “Candidates or tenderers shall be excluded from participation in procurement procedures if:
(c) they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify”.

I request access to information and documents showing how the Assessors Team considered for the purposes of Grant Application submitted by DIHR, the Public Statement of Danish Foreign Ministry REF: “the deliberate transfer of old losses to non-existing projects that were created for this purpose”.

Article 94 of FR requires:
“ A contract shall not be awarded to candidates or tenderers who, during the procurement procedure for this contract:
(b) are guilty of misrepresentation in supplying the information required by the contracting authority as a condition of participation in the procurement procedure or fail to supply this information;
(c) find themselves in one of the situations of exclusion, referred to in Article 93(1), for this procurement procedure”.

I request access to information and documents (i.e. Declaration) showing that DIHR informed European Commission about the frozen financing by Danish Foreign Ministry, and about “ the deliberate transfer of old losses to non-existing projects that were created for this purpose”.

The European Commission published the Grant Agreement concluded in 04 April 2013 with DIHR :
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/548/r...

Before this conclusion, in 13 March 2013, Danish Ministry published a formal document on situation at DIHR available here http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/...
Subsequently, published in the same website an additional document which revealed that external EU grants were managed non-satisfactory or satisfactory. Non-Satisfactory level was in respect of year 2012.

At page 2 of this Official Communication accessible from the link above is stated:

“Against the background of a number of irregularities with regard to project financial management that took place during the period from 1997 to 2008, the Minister for Development Corporation stipulated a number of conditions to be met before the 2012 grant could be disbursed in three-monthly instalments.”

I request information if this document of 13 March 2013 and the remark “irregularities” was taken into consideration for the purposes of concluding the Grant Agreement dated 05/04/2013 (EC-DIHR).

I also request access to documents and information about any intention by European Commission to apply contractual provision stipulated in the Grant Agreement par. II.11.3 “Termination of the grant by the Commission” http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/548/r... in line with the following :
e) professional misconduct
h) irregularities, substantial errors.

If the Declaration provided do not contain remarks about the Public Statement by Foreign Ministry ref. irregularities at DIHR , also e) relating to the truthiness of declaration.

If there is no such intention, I request access to the document motivating the exemption granted.

Finally I request access to applicable rules of the EC containing the definition of concepts “irregularity”, “financial irregularity” and information if the meaning of these concepts is treated differently at national level.
In other words: the financial irregularities found by Danish Authorities in accounts of DIHR have another meaning for EC and/or other EU institutions or bodies, when they award Contracts and Grants funded from EU Budget?

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Secretariat General (SG)'s handling of my FOI request 'Grants and contracts awarded by European Commission to Danish Institute for Human Rights'.

Dear Ms Day,

I would like to outline that my Requests of 28 July 2013 and 1st August 2013 did not benefit of any reply. My awareness that the USB storage device did not arrive remained also with no reply.
Therefore I hereby request an internal review in respect of the delayed responses.

Additionally, I would like to request access to all existent documents related to irregularities found by Danish authorities in accounts of DIHR and the way these counted for the purpose of grant awarding to DIHR by EC. These documents could be any Notes, Minutes, Reports or correspondence with beneficiary of grant - DIHR, correspondence with OLAF and/or any documents remitted by OLAF to European Commission SG, correspondence with European Parliament, other EU institutions and bodies or its leadership or staff members.

Details could be found in my Request dated 14 August 2013.

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

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

L'activité des services de la Commission européenne étant réduite durant
le mois d'août, vos demandes d'accès aux documents seront traitées dans
les meilleurs délais. Toutefois, certains retards peuvent se produire, en
particulier lorsque le traitement des données exige la consultation des
administrations nationales, d’organisations extérieures ou d’autres
services.

*  *  *

Die Tätigkeiten der Dienststellen der Europäischen Kommission sind im
August reduziert; Ihre Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden dennoch so
schnell wie möglich bearbeitet. Allerdings können Verzögerungen auftreten,
insbesondere wenn die Berarbeitung der Anträge die Konsultierung der
nationalen Verwaltungen, externer Organisationen oder anderer
Dienststellen erforderlich macht.

* *  *

The activity of European Commission departments is likely to be reduced
during August.  We will handle  your requests for access to documents as
soon as possible.  However, some delays may occur, especially where the
processing of data requires the consultation of national administrations,
external organisations or other services.

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

In order to be able to treat in a good way your request below, Mr Legris,
Head of Unit of the Transparency Unit in the Secretariat-General of the
European Commission, would like to contact you by phone.

Could you please let us a phone number where Mr Legris may contact you and
tell us the best moment to reach you?

Thank you by advance for your kind cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

 

Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency

 

Zitate anzeigen

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Thank you for your email. Would be possible to provide me with an email address in order to comply with your request (i.e. to send you my phone number)? Thank you in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

[1][email address] is the right email where you can send your
phone number.

Sincerely yours,

 

Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency

 

Zitate anzeigen

Dear Mr Simon,

Thank you for your reply. The link for email you provided lead to the website of Access Info Europe (i.e. a section of asktheeu website). This means that I have to publish the phone number in a public domain. However I would like not to publish my private phone number in this way. Therefore, in order to give a bit of hand as to the necessary clarifications you requested I propose that Unit SG.B.5, Transparency
consult the Letter dated 15 November 2012 submitted to President Barroso and subsequently to Ms Day. There are clarifying details as to the request launched.
Alternatively I can send you the version of my requests to access EC documents where the requested docs are highlighted inn yellow being very easy to be identified. As you can see in my requests, I first presented the details and then inserted the document I would like to access.
If this alternative is not suitable, there is another one to liase with the organization Access Info Europe, where I can send all necessary clarifications (EC replies to point 2 http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/684/r... should or could contain the majority of the replies).
Thank you in advance for informing me which alternative is suitable.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

I propose you to call  at the general phone number of the European
Commission (+32-[0]2-299.11.11) and to ask to talk with Mr Gérard Legris.

Sincerely yours,

 

Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency

 

Zitate anzeigen

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

 
 
Dear Mrs. Trentea,
 
In the context of your communication about the non-receipt of the USB
stick with documentation requested in GESTDEM 2013-1654  (included in your
e-mail of 11 August 2013 below), please note that the envelope with the
USB device has now (on 27/08/2013) returned to the  European Commission.
According to the postal information on it, the Spanish post attempted
delivery to "Ms. Cornelia Trentea c/o Access Info Europe, Calle Principe
de Anglona 5, 28005 Madrid, Spain" on 20 July 2013. Following the first
unsuccessful attempt, the envelope remained available at the local post 
office until  9 August 2013 but was never claimed by Access Info Europe. 
Kindly let us know to what address we should re-send the device with
documents.
 
Best regards,
 
The FRAC Team
 
 

Zitate anzeigen

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Thank you very much for your email. I will send you a new postal address via EC email.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

2 Attachments

Registration number :
Ares(2013) 3004032

Dear Ms Trentea,

I am pleased to provide you with a letter signed by Mr Renatas MAZEIKA,
Head of Unit A4, regarding your application to Access to information and
documents of 19/08/2013.

I must remind you that this document cannot be reproduced or disseminated
for commercial purposes unless the Commission has first been consulted.

 

Yours sincerely,

THE FRC TEAM
 
European Commission
DG JUSTICE
Unit A4
MO59
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Thank you for your letter.

As requested by SG services in 23 August 2013, I phoned the Director of SG Transparency Unit (in 26 August 2013). During the phone conversation I was informed that DG Justice wants to have a direct talk with me and that I will receive very shortly an invitation for talks. Up to the present I did not receive this invitation. May I kindly ask you to provide me relevant information when these talks are planned to take place?

On 29 August 2013 I sent the summary-text of phone conversation to European Commission in order to agree on it (if it is complete and accurate). The policy of this website is to upload the related communications, under the relevant “Request to access documents”. May I kindly ask you to confirm your agreement on the summarizing text?

Finally, I would like to supplement my request of 14 august 2013 with a few more documents.

1. First, I kindly request to be granted access to the relevant documents related to the exclusion from the Restricted Call for Proposals for Grants ref. JUST/2012/PROG/AG7AD of the competitor of DIHR, i.e Documentation and Advisory Center on Racial Discrimination Denmark. In the Evaluation Report (under ref. 4000003706) http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/563/r... is provided as reason of ineligibility that “Annex 8 does not include statutes and proof of VAT”.

I would like to access relevant documents showing if there were additional reasons for the exclusion of Documentation and Advisory Center on Racial Discrimination Denmark, which are not inserted in the relevant cell of the table. Also I request access to the EC letters for request for clarifications, submitted to the excluded companies, including the competitor of DIHR.

2. Second, I request access to the updated version of the List of public bodies appended to Annex III of Directive 2004/18/EC of 31 March 2004. On the old list available here http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU... in Annex III, DIHR is not evidenced. The FRC Team stated that DIHR as public body under Danish law is exempted from financial and operational verifications. The definition of “public body” is to be found in article 1(9) of Directive 18. It is also available in EC website here http://cordis.europa.eu/eu-funding-guide...

One of the conditions that institutes as DIHR are assimilated to “public bodies” and hence exempted for financial verifications is: NOT to have commercial activities. DIHR and parent company of DIHR is registered in the Register of Danish Commerce and Companies Agency under number 19831639. The information is available on internet.

Just to clarify the rationale of my request: the competitor of DIHR was apparently excluded for scarce reasons. DIHR was apparently wrongfully exempted from financial verifications and won a contract of 200.000 Euro in still not well established conditions. It won also other contracts at other EU institutions. See in my previous emails the arguments and related evidences. Here is only one http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/English-site/... (see page 2 Title “Challenges….”). That document talks about financial irregularities at DIHR and suspending of funding.

I respectfully ask you to consider this supplement of my request within the original one, which has a deadline 27 September 2013 (see EC letter of 6 September 2013).

I already thank you for your support.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Cornelia Trentea hat eine Nachricht hinterlassen ()

deadline 27-09-2013

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

By this letter http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... I was informed about an extension time needed for SG to treat my confirmatory application. The deadline was set for 27.09.2013 and it expired. May I kindly ask you to inform me on the state of play of my application?

I also would like to remind you about the other requests submitted to SG, which are still not answered. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Cornelia Trentea,

1 Attachment

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

12 Attachments

Dear Ms. Trentea,
We refer to your request for access to documents of the Commission of 1
August 2013 registered under the GESTDEM number 2013/4258. Kindly find our
replies inserted into the text of your request below (each point preceded
by the word “Answer:” and followed by the requested documents as
attachments, where applicable).
Best Regards,
The FRC Team
 
 
 

Zitate anzeigen

Andreas Pavlou,

18 Attachments

[Subject only] Postal reply uploaded

Zitate anzeigen

Andreas Pavlou,

14 Attachments

Attached is a zip file, of the files sent in the post to Access Info
Europe, in reply to this thread. 3a/3

--
Andreas Pavlou
Access Info Europe
+34 913 656 558
twitter: @andreaspavlou skype: andreas.pavlou
www.access-info.org www.asktheEU.org www.opengovstandards.org

Andreas Pavlou,

6 Attachments

Attached is a zip file, of the files sent in the post to Access Info
Europe, in reply to this thread. 3b/3. END.

--
Andreas Pavlou
Access Info Europe
+34 913 656 558
twitter: @andreaspavlou skype: andreas.pavlou
www.access-info.org www.asktheEU.org www.opengovstandards.org

Andreas Pavlou,

6 Attachments

Attached is a zip file, of the files sent in the post to Access Info
Europe, in reply to this thread. 1/3

--
Andreas Pavlou
Access Info Europe
+34 913 656 558
twitter: @andreaspavlou skype: andreas.pavlou
www.access-info.org www.asktheEU.org www.opengovstandards.org

Andreas Pavlou,

18 Attachments

[Subject only] Postal reply uploaded

Zitate anzeigen

Cornelia Trentea,

1 Attachment

Cornelia Trentea,

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Day,

Thank you for the email dated 9 October 2013 by which you replied to my email dated 1st August 2013. I received a part of documents as they are visible in asktheeu website (Request 2978).

I am writing to remind you about the remaining three Requests to access documents: first dated 14 August 2013, second dated 19 August 2013 and third one dated 9 September 2013. I still did not receive any reply on this. Based on your tacit rejection, I hereby kindly request an Internal Review.

I place under the same Request 2978, a new one, triggered by the content of the documents European commission disclosed on 9 October 2013.

As you can see, among documents disclosed by European Commission in 9 October 2013 there are a series of emails sent to Mr Paul Nemitz, director at DG Justice and apparently to Mr Martin Selmayr, Head of Private Office of Commissioner &Vicepresident ( Ms Viviane Reding) . Those emails are accessible from here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...

Under the right of access to documents stipulated in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting access to the following documents and information:

1.) Mr Paul Nemitz`s response to e-mail of 19 January 2012 and/or any documents drafted by him in order to address the issues emerged from that email (financial irregularities in accounts of Danish Institute for Human Rights, a contractor of European Commission and of other EU bodies and agencies).

2.) Document containing the information conveyed to Mr Martin Selmayr as mentioned at the end of this document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...

3.) Documents on addressing the issues contained in emails:

a. scenario for cover up financial irregularities i.e. “If I am contacted I will shortly stress my surprise and that it is all new to me” (see page 2 of this document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... )

b. scenario for minimalizing losses of 400.000 Euro (3.200.000 Danish kroner) hidden in inexistent projects i.e. “…that is an issue of financial irregularities – no fraud and no losses for anybody – and that the amount is minimal” (see the same document as above).

c. scenario to mislead the Danish press, i.e. “I will underline that it is a single incident in a big organization” (see the same link as for a) and b) above)

4.) Documents showing if OLAF checked the financial irregularities in question from the perspective of legal conditions mandatory required by Financial Regulation as to admission to Grant procedure of candidates who fails intentionally to declare such losses in their balance sheets. In emails sent to Mr Nemitz and Mr Selmayr it is proposed a cover up and simulating to press surprise that “all is new” while it was not (intentional omission to declare the 400.000 Euro in losses placed in inexistent projects).

As you know, in accordance to Article 135 (3) FR “Payment of grants and controls” :

“Where, after the award of the grant, the award procedure or the implementation of the grant proves to have been subject to substantial errors, irregularities, fraud, or breach of obligations, the authorizing officer responsible may, depending on the stage reached in the procedure and, provided that the applicant or beneficiary has been given the opportunity to make observations:
(a) refuse to sign the grant agreement or to give notification of the grant decision;
(b) suspend implementation of the grant; or
(c) where appropriate, terminate the grant agreement or decision.”
See also the rest of paragraphs of article 135 FR (par. 4 to 9)

As existence of financial irregularities at DIHR is directly acknowledged in this document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... by stating “…that is an issue of financial irregularities – no fraud and no losses for anybody – and that the amount is minimal” ,

and all paragraphs of Article 135 of EU Financial Regulation requires specific legal steps in presence of such financial irregularities as placing losses in inexistent projects and failure to declare it for the purposes of procurement & grant procedure,

I request access to all and any documents and information showing the measures taken by EC in respect of omission to declare financial irregularities in accounts of DIHR and misleading scenarios proposed to Mr Paul Nemitz and Head of Private Office of Ms Viviane Reding (simulation of surprise as to the respective financial irregularities, pretending that all is new and the amounts in question are insignificant etc).
Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

3 Attachments

Dear Ms. Trentea,

 

I am pleased to provide you the documents requested from the European
Commission accompanied by a letter signed by Mr Renatas MAZEIKA, Head of
Unit A4

I must remind you that this document cannot be reproduced or disseminated
for commercial purposes unless the Commission has first been consulted.

 

With kind regards,

The PROGRESS Team

 

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

3 Attachments

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

Please accept our apologies, as the letter accompanying the documents you
have requested, is signed by Ms Francoise LE BAIL, Director General of DG
Justice and not by Mr Mazeika.

 

With kind regards,

The PROGRESS team

 

From: JUST PROGRESS
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2013 4:33 PM
To: '[FOI #477 email]'
Cc: JUST ACCES DOCUMENTS
Subject: Your application for access to information and documents – Ref
GestDem No 2013/4337

 

Dear Ms. Trentea,

 

I am pleased to provide you the documents requested from the European
Commission accompanied by a letter signed by Mr Renatas MAZEIKA, Head of
Unit A4

I must remind you that this document cannot be reproduced or disseminated
for commercial purposes unless the Commission has first been consulted.

 

With kind regards,

The PROGRESS Team

 

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Secretariat General (SG)'s handling of my FOI request 'Grants and contracts awarded by European Commission to Danish Institute for Human Rights'.

Dear Ms Le Bail,

Thank you for your letter dated 28 November2013 http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... and for the two additional documents on DIHR exclusion criteria, disclosed to the public.

In order to follow next steps (confirmatory applications or means of redress under Regulation 1049/2001 / Ombudsman or GC) I would like kindly to remind you about my Initial Application dated 3rd November 2013 (see it here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/grant...). I did not receive an Answer and the 15 days - time limit had elapsed.

Therefore for a consistent and unitary treatment of my applications, an Answer of European Commission to my Request dated 3rd November 2013 is needed. This is all the more necessary because the entire list of non-existing documents listed in your Letter of 28 November 2013 is strongly related to my request of 3rd November 2013. There is a possibility that the list of non-existing documents listed in your letter is in fact related to this Document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... disclosed by EC to public domain in 9 October 2013 or to this Debit Note of 94.000 Euros (amount to be recovered from DIHR ) and some EC letters available here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/877/r...

As you can see, from EC letter dated 29 September 2013 (listed after Debit Note) signed by an EC Official, it appears that DIHR requested European Commission to agree with the cancelation of an essential package of deliverables (i.e. production of a film about best practices on enterprises diversity), agreed via a grant agreement of around 200,000 Euros. The respective cancellation was requested by DIHR “in order to cover the cost of a new project team member”.

European Commission official considered the proposal of DIHR beyond the limits of law and rejected it, because that proposal envisages using money allocated for a specific purpose (producing a film) to finance DIHR personnel arrived to the project after the signature of the contract.

European Commission official wrote to DIHR: “In case you encounter difficulties to actually cover your staff cost (permanent staff) by your own contribution, another solution should be envisaged”. (?)
As you surely know, Danish Authorities found irregularities in internal and external projects managed by DIHR http://jyllands-posten.dk/politik/ECE462...
The „Solution“ at that time was to create fictive projects in order to place losses http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getD... . This practice was revealed to the public by danish officials. Now one of the EC Official are revealing that DIHR came with a strange Solution to cancel an essential part of the contract “in order to cover the cost of a new project team member”.

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

In absence of an Answer to my Request dated 3rd November 2013 I submit hereby a confirmatory application against Implicit Decision by DG Justice not to grant me access to the documents specified in my initial application and to the information attached to that/those document/s.

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

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

Dear Ms Trentea,
We refer to your e-mail dated 03/11/2013 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered under the above mentioned reference
number.
Your application is currently being handled by DG JUSTICE, point 4 will be
dealt with by OLAF.
However, we are not in a position to complete the handling of your
application within the time limit of 15 working days and 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 23/12/2013.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
 
JUST ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
 

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

Dear Ms Trentea,

We have received your confirmatory request dated 01 December 2013 (resent on 09 December 2013), due to lack of response by DG Justice.

Meanwhile, we have contacted DG Justice who informed us that they are preparing a reply at initial stage.

We also noticed that they have sent you a holding reply, extending the time-limit to 23 December 2013.

Yours sincerely,
Priscille Schiltz
European Commission
SG B5 - Transparency, 'Access to documents'

Zitate anzeigen

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

Thank you for your email of 3 November 2013 addressed to Ms Catherine Day
who has asked me to reply to you. I apologize for the delay in replying.

 

You have requested access to the following :

 

1)      Mr Paul Nemitz's response to e-mail of 19 January 2012 and/or any
documents drafted by him in order to address the issues emerged from that
email

2)      Document containing the information conveyed to Mr Martin Selmayr
as mentioned at the end of this document

3)      Documents on addressing the issues contained in emails:

 

a.      scenario for cover up financial irregularities i.e. “If I am
contacted I will shortly stress my surprise and that it is all new to me”

b.      scenario for minimalizing losses of 400.000 Euro (3.200.000 Danish
kroner) hidden in inexistent projects i.e. “…that is an issue of financial
irregularities – no fraud and no losses for anybody – and that the amount
is minimal”

c.      scenario to mislead the Danish press, i.e. “I will underline that
it is a single incident in a big organization”

 

4)      Documents showing if OLAF checked the financial irregularities in
question from the perspective of legal conditions mandatory  required by
Financial Regulation as to admission to Grant procedure of candidates who
fails intentionally to declare such losses in their balance sheets.

 

Following your requests under points 1 and 3 a-c, we have carried out a
check in our archives and we could find no documents which contain replies
or which amount to a follow-up to the communication to which you refer to.
 Concerning your request under point 2 you will find in attachment copy of
the correspondence of Mr Kjaerum to Mr Selmayr.  Furthermore, I can inform
you that on this issue a discussion took place between Mr Selmayr and
Director General Ms Le Bail concluding that this is an internal Danish
matter relating to a topic which dates from before Mr Kjaerum joined the
FRA as Director.

 

The European Anti-Fraud Office will send a separate answer to the issue
raised under point 4.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Salla Saastamoinen

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

Head of Unit

JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child

Directorate General Justice

European Commission

E-mail: [1][email address]

 

 

 

Zitate anzeigen

Dear Secretariat General (SG), Dear Mr President Barroso,

On 9 October 2013, your services granted me access to this document http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... and on 17 January 2014 to this one http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...

These two documents represent private correspondence between senior officials of European Commission and an EU agency, related to financial irregularities in accounts of one contractor of that EU agency and of European Commission.

I am writing to obtain access to some information attached to the two documents disclosed by European Commission (see the relevant links above) and also information about the position taken by DG Justice.

As you can observe in the Response by Ms Saala Saastamoinen, available here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/grant... under the date 17 January 2014, there is a specific approach by a senior staff of DG Justice as to the financial irregularities in accounts of DIHR, a contractor of FRA and European Commission.

I quote from Ms Saastamoinen`s public response:

“Following your requests under points 1 and 3 a-c, we have carried out a check in our archives and we could find no documents which contain replies or which amount to a follow-up to the communication to which you refer to. Concerning your request under point 2 you will find in attachment copy of the correspondence of Mr Kjaerum to Mr Selmayr. Furthermore, I can inform you that on this issue a discussion took place between Mr Selmayr and Director General Ms Le Bail concluding that this is an internal Danish matter relating to a topic which dates from before Mr Kjaerum joined the FRA as Director.”

Therefore, it appears that DG Justice`s high level hierarchy, only following my Public Request dated 3 November 2013, discussed among them about the false accounting in DIHR accounts and concluded that “this is an internal Danish matter relating to a topic which dates from before Mr Kjaerum joined the FRA as Director.”

It appears that DG Justice it is not aware about the the several contracts and grants concluded with DIHR, amounted to millions or euro. The list is to be found under the same link.

I would like to request access to the following information attached to the two documents disclosed to me and mentioned above:

1. Are there any explanations about why DIHR was exempted from application of article 107(1) new FR (art. 94 in repealed FR), applicable for both, FRA procurement contracts and EC grants agreements which imperatively require that:

“A contract shall not be awarded to candidates or tenderers who, during the procurement procedure for that contract:
(a) are subject to a conflict of interests;
(b) are guilty of misrepresenting the information required by the contracting authority as a condition of participation in the procurement procedure or fail to supply that information;
(c) find themselves in one of the situations of exclusion, referred to in Article 106(1), for the procurement procedure”.

and article 145(2) of Rules of Application of EU Financial Regulation which require that:
“2. Tenderers or candidates who have made false declarations, have committed substantial errors, irregularities or fraud, may also be subject to financial penalties representing 2% to 10% of the total estimated value of the contract being awarded.”

If these articles and also some other ones envisaged in EU Financial Regulation are applied, DIHR would not have won all those contracts.

2. From the replies from DG Justice it is quite clear that after EC senior staff received these two emails http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...
there was no action taken as to the financial irregularities in question (suspension of the contract, or termination of the contract, or recovering the amounts paid by EC and FRA or any other legal step). On the contrary both institutions and bodies (European Commission and FRA) continued to award contracts to DIHR.

I request access to the legal basis applied for those awarding of contracts, taking view to the particular aspects of the case, i.e. keeping the respective financial irregularities private/personal and secret).

I also request access to any documents showing that the Highest Hierarchy in the Commission (as President, Vice-President, Secretary General) took some relevant steps, like ordering some audits, controls, etc. If this is the case, I request access to the relevant findings. These could be Audit Reports, Letters, Notes, Minutes, etc.

Thank you very much.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

Dear Sender,

 

I am out-of-office until 3 February 2014 and will not read the e-mails
regularly.

 

In urgent matters, please contact the Deputy Head of Unit, Mr Antoine
Buchet, tel +32(2)29 91517, e-mail: [email address] or the
Unit secretariat, tel +32(2)29.56832 or +32(2)29.69463, e-mail:
[email address].

 

Kind regards,

 

Salla Saastamoinen

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

Head of Unit JUSTICE.C.1 Fundamental rights and rigths of the child

Directorate General Justice

European Commission

Tel. +32-2-296.94.63

Gsm. +32-498-96.94.63

E-mail: [email address]

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

We have treated your request for information of 3 November 2013 and you
will receive an electronic copy of the reply by the end of this week.

 

Best regards,

 

 

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROPEAN ANTI-FRAUD OFFICE (OLAF)
Directorate  C: Investigation Support
Unit  C.4 – Legal Advice
Rue Joseph II, 30 • B-1000 Brussels (Belgium)

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud

Our policy regarding personal data protection can be viewed on
[2]http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/about-us/...

 

References

Visible links
1. http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud
2. http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/about-us/...

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Trentea,

 

Please find herewith a letter from the Head of Unit of Unit 0.1 Mr
Pecoraro for your information.

 

Best regards,

 

 

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROPEAN ANTI-FRAUD OFFICE (OLAF)
Directorate  C: Investigation Support
Unit  C.4 – Legal Advice
Rue Joseph II, 30 • B-1000 Brussels (Belgium)

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud

Our policy regarding personal data protection can be viewed on
[2]http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/about-us/...

 

 

References

Visible links
1. http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud
2. http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/about-us/...

Dear Mr Pecoraro,

Thank you for your letter dated 30 January 2014, accessible from here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...

In this letter you refer to a confirmatory reply sent by OLAF to me in 20 June 2013 and in this account you conclude at the end of your letter that:
“Therefore, OLAF is not treating your request as an application concerning public access under Regulation (EC) Nr 1049/2001 to the above-mentioned documents. ”

May I respectfully ask you why the Point 4 of my Request dated 3 November 2013 (accessible from here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/grant... / see relevant date 03.11.2013) cannot be treated as an application concerning public access under Regulation (EC) Nr 1049/2001?

As you can see in my request of 3 November 2013, I requested different information and documents than the ones to which OLAF rejected access in 20 June 2013.

The respective information and documents were related and triggered by a Document disclosed by European Commission in 9 October 2013, which is accessible from here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...

Therefore it is obvious that my request is not a repetition as you write in your letter of 30 January 2014. Based in this alleged repetition, you refuse to treat my Request of 3 November 2013. Please be reminded that in 20 June 2013 OLAF rejected my request to access Investigation Report in case OF/0753/2011. In 3 November 2013 I did not ask again to access this Report (OF/0753/2011) but I asked different information and documents, triggered by the EC disclosure of 9 October 2013 . For your facility I insert below the relevant Quote from my Request of 3 November 2013:

--------- Begin of Quote -------------

“4.) Documents showing if OLAF checked the financial irregularities in question from the perspective of legal conditions mandatory required by Financial Regulation as to admission to Grant procedure of candidates who fails intentionally to declare such losses in their balance sheets. In emails sent to Mr Nemitz and Mr Selmayr it is proposed a cover up and simulating to press surprise that “all is new” while it was not (intentional omission to declare the 400.000 Euro in losses placed in inexistent projects).

As you know, in accordance to Article 135 (3) FR “Payment of grants and controls” :

“Where, after the award of the grant, the award procedure or the implementation of the grant proves to have been subject to substantial errors, irregularities, fraud, or breach of
obligations, the authorizing officer responsible may, depending on the stage reached in the procedure and, provided that the applicant or beneficiary has been given the opportunity to make observations:
(a) refuse to sign the grant agreement or to give notification of
the grant decision;
(b) suspend implementation of the grant; or
(c) where appropriate, terminate the grant agreement or decision.”
See also the rest of paragraphs of article 135 FR (par. 4 to 9)

As existence of financial irregularities at DIHR is directly acknowledged in this document
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... by stating “…that is an issue of financial irregularities – no fraud and no losses for anybody – and that the amount is minimal” ,

and all paragraphs of Article 135 of EU Financial Regulation requires specific legal steps in presence of such financial irregularities as placing losses in inexistent projects and failure
to declare it for the purposes of procurement & grant procedure, I request access to all and any documents and information showing the measures taken by EC in respect of omission to declare financial irregularities in accounts of DIHR and misleading scenarios proposed to Mr Paul Nemitz and Head of Private Office of Ms Viviane Reding (simulation of surprise as to the respective financial irregularities, pretending that all is new and the amounts in question are insignificant etc).”

------- End of Quote --------------

Having regard to the above, I would be grateful if you could review your decision of 30 January 2014 and treat my request of 3 November 2013 as a new request under Regulation 1049/2001 (new documents, new information).

#####

Also I would like to request clarification on this statement:

‘’’ Furthermore, the information you are requesting may be found in the opinion on the opening decision, reference OF/0583/2013, and in the final report, reference OF/2011/0753.’”

I understand your statement as follows: that OLAF, at the moment of performing its investigation in case OF/2011/0753, acquired the 2 documents disclosed by European Commission in 9 October 2013 and 17 January 2014. These documents are:

a) The document of 9 October 2013 represents an email to a Director at European Commission about how to minimalize financial irregularities in accounts of a contractor of European Commission and an EU agency. See it here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...

In this respect, you may wish to read this Question by a Member of European Parliament http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getD...

b) The document of 17 January 2013 represents an email to the Head of Private office of a commisioner at European Commission about the same aim as above. See it here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...

Thank you in advance for reviewing your decision of 30 January 2014 and treating my request under Regulation 1049.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

This is a kind reminder for my Request dated January 24, 2014 addressed to SG and EC President. I did not receive yet a reply or at least an acknowledgement of receipt.

May I kindly ask you relevant information about the status of my request of January 24, 2014 accessible from here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/grant...
Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Cornelia Trentea

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

Dear Ms Trentea,

Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2014/803

We refer to your e-mail dated 24 January 2014 in which you make a request for access to documents.
Your application is currently being handled. However, we were not be in a position to complete the handling of your application within the time limit of 15 working days.
An extended time limit is needed as your application due to the difficulty to identify the documents requested.
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 7 March 2014.

We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.

JUST ACCESS DOCUMENTS -----

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

2 Attachments

 

 

Please find attached a reply to correspondence with the European
Commission.

Kind regards,

The Secretariat
European Commission
Directorate General Justice
Unit C1 - Fundamental Rights and Rights of the Child

Office: Rue Montoyer, 59  5/075, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Mail address: European Commission – DG JUST/C1 - MO59 05/075
B-1000 Brussels – Belgium

E-mails: [1][email address]

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Generalsekretariat der Europäischen Kommission

1 Attachment

Dear Madam,

 

Please find attached OLAF's reply to your e-mail dated 13 February 2014.

 

Please do not reply to this message via e-mail. This address is automated 
and cannot help with further correspondence.

 

You may send your messages via OLAF INTERNET
([1]http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/investiga...)

mentioning our references OF/2013/0583 and OF/2011/0753.

 

Thank you

 

References

Visible links
1. http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/investiga...

Wir sind nicht sicher, ob die letzte Antwort auf diese Anfrage Informationen enthält – »falls Sie Cornelia Trentea sind, bitte melden Sich an und lassen es uns wissen.