Radio Equipment Directive: Common Charger: industry self-regulation
Dear Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,
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:
Any document that relates to the introduction of regulation or self-regulation regarding the provisions on interoperable common chargers for smartphones in Directive 2014/53/EU ("Radio Equipment Directive"), including but not limited to possible guidance given, proposals, memos, studies, notes, meeting records, letters to Commission and staff regarding self-regulatory agreements, e.g. codes of conduct, memoranda of understanding.
In case documents should be classified or cannot be released because of exceptions of special treatment, I am asking for the name, source (e.g. the institution, DG and unit) and any reference number of these documents.
If information under the scope of regulation 1049/2001 is not held by DG GROW but by the Commission, the Commissioner or another DG or Commission unit, I would like this information to be included in this request.
For the avoidance of doubt, I want all information on this subject held to be included in this request, including those documents which are not registered or filed and those which will not be registered or filed. If a document is considered not important enough for filing, it is still a document under Regulation 1049/2001 and should be released. This concerns intra-unit communication, drafts, notes and remarks.
This request refers to documents leading up to and since the introduction of the provision in the directive.
Yours faithfully,
Sebastian Raible
Dear Mr Raible,
Thank you for your request for access to documents.
Unfortunately you have not indicated your postal address that is required
for registering and handling your request in line with the procedural
requirements.
Please send us your full postal address at your earliest convenience.
Pending your reply, we reserve the right to refuse the registration of
your request.
You may, of course, use directly the electronic form for entering your
request:
[1]http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/...
Best regards,
DG GROW – Access to documents team
[2]cid:479385507@17082012-2045
European Commission
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs
DG GROW/A1 – Communication, Access to Documents and Document Management
References
Visible links
1. http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/...
Dear Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,
thank you for your reply in which you ask for my postal address. You do not have the right to require a postal address for access to information requests under Regulation 1049/2001.
Please send me a confirmation of registration of my access to information request. Please make sure to acknowledge 5/March 2018 as the date on which the request was registered.
Yours faithfully,
Sebastian Raible
Dear Mr Raible,
With respect to your concerns regarding the provision of a postal address,
please find our explanations below.
On 1 April 2014, the postal address became a mandatory feature for the
purpose of introducing a request for access to documents.
The decision to ask for a postal address from applicants for access to
documents was triggered by the following considerations:
• The need to obtain legal certainty as regards the date of receipt of the
reply by the applicant under Regulation 1049/2001. Indeed, as foreseen by
Article 297 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),
[…] decisions which specify to whom they are addressed, shall be notified
to those to whom they are addressed and shall take effect upon such
notification. Replies triggering the possibility for administrative or
judicial redress are therefore transmitted via registered mail with
acknowledgement of receipt. This requires an indication of a valid postal
address by the applicant;
• The need to direct the Commission's scarce resources first of all to
those requests which have been filed by "real" applicants. With only a
compulsory indication of an e-mail address, applicants can easily
introduce requests under an invented identity or under the identity of a
third person. Asking for a postal address helps the Commission to protect
the administration, as well as other citizens and legal persons, from
abuse;
• For similar reasons, asking for a compulsory indication of a postal
address enables the Commission services to verify whether Article 6(3) of
the Regulation, on voluminous requests, is being evaded by introducing
several requests under different identities. Indeed, in its Ryanair
judgment, the General Court confirmed that Article 6(3) cannot be evaded
by splitting the application into a number of applications. The Commission
would like to point out that, in 2012/2013, it received some 57
confirmatory requests from what it suspects to be one single applicant
operating under 13 different identities;
• Knowing whether the applicant is an EU resident in the sense of Article
2(1) of Regulation 1049/2001 is a precondition for the purpose of
correctly applying the exception in Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation
1049/2001 (protection of the privacy and integrity of the individual),
which has to be interpreted in accordance with Data Protection Regulation
45/2001. Article 9 of Regulation 45/2001 requires the adequacy of the
level of protection afforded by the third country or international
organisation when transmitting personal data to third-country residents or
legal persons. It follows that, in case of requests for documents which
include personal data, the correct application of the data protection
rules cannot be ensured in the absence of a postal address enabling the
Commission to ascertain that the minimum data protection standards will be
respected.
All of these considerations show that the request for and the consequent
processing of a postal address is not only appropriate but also strictly
necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest
within the meaning of Article 5 (a) of Data Protection Regulation 45/2001,
namely providing a smooth and effective access to documents.
We therefore kindly ask you to confirm that your postal address is the
following one:
European Parliament
Bat. Altiero Spinelli
Office 05F158
60 Rue Wiertz
B-1047 Brussels
After having received your confirmation, we can duly register and handle
your request. Please note that, once we receive your postal address, we
will register your request for access as an initial application for access
to documents in the meaning of Article 6(1) of Regulation 1049/2001.
The deadline for handling your initial request shall run as from the
moment of registration of your request following the submission of your
postal address.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
DG GROW – Access to documents team
European Commission
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs
DG GROW/A1 – Communication, Access to Documents and Document Management
Dear Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,
thank you for confirming that you already had my address. Please treat my request in accordance with Regulation 1049/2001, Article 7, paragraph 1: "An application for access to a document shall be handled *promptly*", which means that the date of registration should be March 5 or March 6 at the latest.
Yours faithfully,
Sebastian Raible
Dear Mr Raible,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 05/03/2018. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on
12/03/2018 under reference number GESTDEM 2018/1504.
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 05/04/2018. In case this time limit needs to
be extended, you will be informed in due course.
You have lodged your application via the AsktheEU.org website. Please note
that this is a private 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.
Yours faithfully,
DG GROW – Access to documents team
[1]cid:479385507@17082012-2045
European Commission
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs
DG GROW/A1 – Communication, Access to Documents and Document Management
References
Visible links
Dear Mr Raible,
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref GESTDEM No
2018/1504
We refer to your e-mail dated 05/03/2018 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on 12/03/2018 under the above mentioned
reference number.
Pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public
access to documents, we kindly invite you to provide us with more detailed
information on the documents which you seek to obtain, in particular on
the exact timeframe during which the documents would have been produced.
If you need assistance in clarifying or specifying your application, you
can contact us:
· by email to: [1][email address]
· by telephone to: (+32) (0) 22 99 22 16
The 15 working days the time limit for handling your application will
start running when we receive the requested clarifications.
Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Yours faithfully,
DG GROW – Access to documents team
[2]cid:479385507@17082012-2045
European Commission
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs
DG GROW/A1 – Communication, Access to Documents and Document Management
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,
in your letter dated March 14, 2018, you have apparently declared the access to documents request suspended pending further information on the kind of documents that are requested by invocation of Article 6 (2) of Regulation 1049/2001. The relevant part of this article reads: "If an application is not sufficiently precise, the institution shall ask the applicant to clarify the application".
The request is already sufficiently precise and you have provided no indication to the contrary. Therefore the time-limit for handling my request remains as is and an additional extension to this time limit cannot be granted.
The request for access to documents was clearly defined on March 5, 2018 and concerns each and every document that relates to the introduction of regulation or self-regulation regarding the provisions on inter-operable common chargers for smartphones in Directive 2014/53/EU ("Radio Equipment Directive") which is mentioned by the Directive in
* recital 12
* article 3 (3) (b) and
* article 47 (2) (e).
I refer you to the European Commission's Guidance Note on Wide-Scope initial requests for access to documents under regulation 1049/2001 from August 27, 2015 (Ref. Ares(2016)5416325 - 16/09/2016), which states that a clarification under Article 6(2) is encouraged if "an initial application is worded in imprecise terms which do not enable the documents falling under the scope of the application to be sufficiently easily identified". This is clearly not the case here.
The suspension of the deadline in accordance with Article 2 of the implementing Rules of Regulation 1049/2001 (OJ L 345 of 29.12.2001, p. 94) which states "the deadline for reply shall run only from the time when the Commission has this information" is not possible as you already have the required information.
Yours faithfully,
Sebastian Raible
Dear Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,
Following up on my yesterday's email, I will agree for now to narrow down the request to the timeframe from 2011 (leading up to SWD/2012/0300) until now, and to the DGs most possibly involved, GROW, CNECT, TRADE and RTD, including their respective predecessors in the previous Commission term, for example DG ENTR; as well as INEA.
Yours faithfully,
Sebastian Raible
Dear Mr Raible,
Many thanks for the below useful and helpful clarifications.
Please note that the 15 working days time limit for handling your
application will start running as of today (16/03/2018) in accordance with
Article 2 of the implementing Rules of Regulation 1049/2001 (OJ L 345 of
29.12.2001, p. 94) which states that "the deadline for reply shall run
only from the time when the Commission has this information".
Yours sincerely,
DG GROW – Access to documents team
European Commission
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs
DG GROW/A1 – Communication, Access to Documents and Document Management
Dear Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,
As you already had all the information in the first place, and seeing as there is no legal basis to further suspend the handling of this request, the time-limit remains unchanged. I will consider a failure to reply before the expiration date a negative reply and immediately send a confirmatory application. Please confirm the time-limit for this access to documents request.
Yours faithfully,
Sebastian Raible
Dear Mr Raible,
After having carefully analysed and assessed your initial request and the
additional information provided in your email of 16March 2018, we came to
the following conclusion.
Your email of 16March 2018 specifies on the one hand the timeframe of the
request and on the other hand the Commission DGs most possibly concerned
by the request. Given that all this complementary information aiming at
facilitating the treatment of the request was not included in your initial
application, we consider your email of 16March 2018 as a reply to the
clarification request.
Due to the above, and according to the rules at force, namely Article 2,
third paragraph of the “Detailed rules for the application of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents”,
the 15 working days time limit for handling your application started
running as of 16/03/2018, which is the date when the Commission received
the complementary information above.
With a view to the above, the first deadline for the handling of your
request is 11/04/2018.
Thank you very much for your comprehension.
Yours faithfully,
DG GROW – Access to documents team
European Commission
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs
DG GROW/A1 – Communication, Access to Documents and Document Management
Dear Mr Raible,
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No
2018/1504
We refer to your e-mails dated 05/03/2018 and 16/03/2018 in which you make
a request for access to documents, registered on 16/03/2018 under the
above mentioned reference number.
Your application is currently being handled. However, we will not be in a
position to complete the handling of your application within the time
limit of 15 working days, which expires on 11/04/2018.
An extended time limit is needed as your application concerns a large
number of documents and part of the documents requested originate from
third parties which have been 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 03/05/2018.
With regard to those documents that do not originate from third parties,
or their consent has been received, I wish to inform you that these should
be sent to you in the coming days.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
DG GROW – Access to documents team
[1]cid:479385507@17082012-2045
European Commission
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and
SMEs
DG GROW/A1 – Communication, Access to Documents and Document Management
References
Visible links
Dear Mr Raible,
Attached please find an advanced copy of the response to your request
regarding the common charger. The paper originals have been posted to you
today.
Kind regards,
Magdalena Moder
Administrative Assistant
European Commission
DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
Unit C3 – Advanced Engineering and Manufacturing Systems
BREY 10/176
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 22986707
[1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]