Mission costs
Dear Office For Administration And Payment Of Individual Entitlements,
In the decision 1061/2019/FP the Ombudsman recognises that greater transparency concerning expenses incurred by EU officials enhances citizens’ trust in the EU institutions. For this reason, the Ombudsman suggests that OLAF takes steps to review its policy and consider implementing more transparent approach in relation to travel expenses which are not incurred in the course of investigatory activities. In particular, consideration should be given to regular proactive disclosure of the Director-General’s expenses.
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am hereby requesting access to the exhaustive lists travel expenses of OLAF General Directors, for the period 1 January 2015 until now.
I am looking for documents that contain, for each of the trips, the following information:
- Place of origin and destination, and the amount spent on travel or transportation;
- Exact dates and duration of the trip;
- Amount spent on accommodation;
- Amount spent on subsistence;
- Other information, such as possible miscellaneous costs.
If the travel was by air taxi and a team of people were travelling, please also provide documents with details on the other travellers (at a minimum, names and job titles).
With respect to personal information contained in any documents that you might have, I note that the only information being sought here is the name and surname of the persons mentioned above, something which is already in the public domain. This request does not seek access to any other personal information such as bank account details. Nor am I requesting data such as the office addresses, signatures or telephone numbers of the staff members.
I remain at your disposition to answer any questions or clarifications you might have related to this request.
Yours faithfully,
Barbara Pelo
Dear Madam,
Thank you for your request for access to documents.
Unfortunately, you have not indicated your complete name (first name is missing). This is necessary for registering and handling your request in line with the procedural requirements.
Please send us your full postal address at your earliest convenience. Pending your reply, we reserve the right to refuse the registration of your request.
Alternatively, you may use directly the electronic form available on the Europa website:
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/....
Best regards,
Access to documents team
SG.C.1
Transparency
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/...
[1]Ares(2020)7015390 - RE: access to documents request - Mission costs ---
Ref. Gestdem 2020/7154
Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Madam,
Thank you for your e-mail of 21 November 2020. We hereby acknowledge
receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered
on 23 November 2020 under reference number GESTDEM 2020/7154.
In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application
will be handled within 15 working days.
The time limit will expire on 14 December 2020. In case this time limit
needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.
You have lodged your application via a private third-party website, which
has no link with any institution of the European Union.
Therefore, the European Commission cannot be held accountable for any
technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.
Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the Commission.
For further information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s
privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the Commission (e.g. your private postal address).
Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.
If you do not wish that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
Privacy statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Access to documents team (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency
Dear Ms Pelo,
We refer to your request for access to the documents dated 19/11/2020, registered on 23/11/2020 under reference Ares(2020)7015271.
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.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents. The new time limit will expire on 13/01/2021 due to consultations.
We apologise for the delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROPEAN ANTI-FRAUD OFFICE (OLAF)
Directorate C: Investigation Support
Unit C.4 – Legal Advice
Rue Joseph II, 30 • B-1000 Brussels (Belgium)
http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud
Our policy regarding personal data protection can be viewed on http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/about-us/...
Dear Ms Pelo,
Please find enclosed a reply to your application for public access to
documents.
Due to the current exceptional circumstances, OLAF will not send you a
copy of the attached reply by registered post. Therefore, we kindly
request you to acknowledge receipt of this email.
Yours sincerely,
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROPEAN ANTI-FRAUD OFFICE (OLAF)
Directorate D – General Affairs
Unit D.2 – 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 Office
My request is not properly considered. You have published only part of information without appropriate reasons for refusal to publish all information requested about missions from 2015
You didn't specify particular reasons for refusal concerning specific aspects of information that I asked in case of each mission that the Director General performed
My question concerns amounts, calculations and/or statistics
These data are transferred to accounting department or for payment so there outside confidential investigation
Rules of confidentiality do not concern handling of administrative elements outside procedural files
Director General is not involved in confidential cases or audits.
You gave no specific reasons for refusing part of information that I requested.
The missions like meetings of Director General are public,announced openly towards other persons, public and the media
full list of his missions should be published covering all aspects of my request within the dates that I request
You didn't specify provisions in favor for your conclusion that Director -General functions during missions are fully covered by confidentiality .
You didn't specify what is the basis for your statement that there is lack of established practices in favor of such publications
You haven't explained why you disregarded Ombudsman decisions that recommended you such publications
You didn't explained why you published some meetings of the Director General although Ombudsman required you to publish the list of his missions
The Ombudsman decision recommended you to consider proactive publications concerning the missions whereas information published by you is different because it concerns only meetings of the Director General
Details asked in my request are not confidential. Analogous details were already received on this website concerning top EU Commissioners with sensitive functions
There is already practice to publish such data on this website
Therefore the EU Ombudsman asked you to consider them regularly
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 'Mission costs'.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/miss...
Yours faithfully,
Barbara Pelo
Dear Mrs. Barbara Pelo,
Thank you for your email dated 30/01/2020, by which you request, pursuant
to Regulation No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,
Council and Commission documents, a review of the position taken by DG
OLAF in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2020/7154.
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents which was registered on 01/02/2021 (Ares(2021)851076).
Your application will be handled within 15 working days (22/02/2021). In
case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due
course.
Please be informed that the answer to your confirmatory application is a
formal Commission decision that will be notified to you.
Yours sincerely,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Unit C1 – Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents
[1]HOW WE PROCESS PERSONAL DATA
Dear Ms Pelo,
We refer to your confirmatory application for public access to documents
dated 30/01/2021, registered under Ares(2021)1015800.
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.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in
accordance with Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001 regarding
public access to documents. The new time limit will expire on 16/03/2021.
We apologise for the delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROPEAN ANTI-FRAUD OFFICE (OLAF)
Directorate D – General Affairs
Unit D.2 – 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 Ms Pelo,
Please find enclosed a reply to your confirmatory application for public
access to documents.
Due to the current exceptional circumstances, OLAF will not send you a
copy of the attached reply by registered post. Therefore, we kindly
request you to acknowledge receipt of this email.
We apologise for slight delay in replying.
Yours sincerely,
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROPEAN ANTI-FRAUD OFFICE (OLAF)
Directorate D – General Affairs
Unit D.2 – 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/...