Meeting Director-General Vioala and Anthropic
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
On 01/03/24 the news website Politico reported about a meeting between Director-General Viola and the co-founder of Anthropic Jack Clarke which took place on 28/02/24.
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:
- All minutes, agendas, summaries, notes or memos issued before or after the meeting mentioned above;
- All documents prepared for, issued in preparation for, or exchanged during this meeting;
- All correspondence including attachments by either of the meeting parties related to this meeting.
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken
On behalf of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Rue d'Edimbourgh 26
1050 Brussels
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 06/03/2024 and registered on 06/03/2024 under the case number
2024/1282.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 27/03/2024. We will let you know
if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working days.
To find more information on how we process your personal data, please see
[1]the privacy statement.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Mr Vranken,
We refer to your request for access to documents, registered under the
abovementioned reference number.
Your application is currently being handled. However, we will not be in a
position to complete the handling of your application within the time
limit of 15 working days, which expires today.
An extended time limit is needed as different services need to be
consulted.
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 22 April 2024.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG CONNECT – ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Rue de la Loi, 51
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Hello,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2024/1282.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
DG CONNECT Access to documents Team
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Meeting Director-General Vioala and Anthropic'.
I note that you have redacted parts of the document based on the protection of commercial interests. You state that:
“Parts of Document 1 contain sensitive information related to the third party’s activities, views, positions, business strategies and other commercial interests, including intellectual property. There is a real and non-hypothetical risk that disclosure of these parts of the above-mentioned documents could undermine and seriously affect the commercial interests of the companies at question.”
Firstly, the reasons you have put forward to justify the application of the exception are vague as you mostly have just copy-pasted article 4.2 in Regulation 1049/2001 on the protection of commercial interests. You have failed to show how disclosing the documents would be "likely, specifically and actually" to seriously undermine the protection of commercial interests, and that the risk of that interest being undermined was "reasonably foreseeable and not purely hypothetical", as required by the established case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (see e.g. Cases 576/12 P, para. 45; C-280/11 P, para. 54; and C-506/08 P, para. 76).
Secondly, you have failed to take into account the existence of an overriding public interest in disclosure. As shown by the document, the meeting with Anthropic covered issues such as the prevention of the misuse of its chatbot Claude in the upcoming elections and how Artificial Intelligence can be developed in a safe manner. It is difficult to imagine how these issues cannot be in the public interest as they touch upon free and fair elections, democracy and the risks posed by harmful AI models.
Moreover, the AI Act, including its implementation, is being heavily lobbied by business interests as reported by multiple media outlets. The public should be able to have a basic understanding of how important policies are being developed and implemented. As such, there is clearly an overriding public interest in disclosure of the documents requested.
On that basis, we respectfully request that you reconsider your decision.
I do not contest by the way the parts of the document redacted under the data protection exception.
Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Bram Vranken
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2024/1282, sent on 24/04/2024 and registered on 24/04/2024.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 17/05/2024. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
Hello,
We are writing concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case 2024/1282 registered on 24/04/2024.
We are currently working on your confirmatory request. However, we have
not yet been able to gather all the elements necessary to carry out a full
analysis of your request. We will not be able to send you the reply within
the prescribed time limit expiring on 17/05/2024.
Therefore, in line with Article 8(2) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 we
need to extend this time limit by 15 additional working days. The new time
limit expires on 10/06/2024.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
Secretariat-General
SG.C1 Access to Documents Team
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
I am writing you in relation to the confirmatory request for access to documents with case number 2024/1282.
The extended deadline of the request has now passed. By law you are obliged to respect the time limit of 15 working days. Can you inform me when I can expect a response?
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken
Dear Sir,
We acknowledge receipt of your email of 25 June 2024, concerning the
delays in the handling of your request.
Please note that, while we are doing our best to provide you with a reply
as soon as possible, delays are due to the very high volume of requests
currently reaching our services. Unfortunately we cannot commit to a
specific time frame within when the final decision will be adopted.
Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience the delay in
this case may cause to you and thank you for your understanding.
Best regards,
Secretariat-General/ Unit C.1 (Transparency, Document Management and
Access to Documents)
Dear Secretariat-General,
I am writing you in relation to the confirmatory application for access to documents with case number 2024/1282.
More than five months after filing the confirmatory application I still haven't received a response. As you well know, the legal deadline to respond is 15 working days.
The European Ombudsman has pointed out that the severe delay in access to documents requests amounts to maladministration.
I therefore expect a response from the Commission soon.
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken