Sanctions
Dear Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection,
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 organisation receiving EU funds for humanitarian aid has a duty to abide by the highest ethical and professional standards in the areas of humanitarian assistance. Should it not meet those standards, then the European Commission can suspend the actions concerned, terminate agreements, suspend payments, and reduce EU financial contributions.
In the context of sexual abuse and exploitation, I am seeking the names all organisations receiving EU funds for humanitarian aid from 2010 until present day that have been determined by the European Commission to have failed to abide by said standards.
I am also seeking figures by the Commission over the same time period of partner organisations deemed to have violated said standards:
How many actions concerned were suspended?
How many agreements were terminated?
How many payments were suspended?
The total amount of EU financial contributions deducted.
Yours faithfully,
Nikolaj Nielsen
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,
Thank you for your request for access to documents.
Unfortunately, you have not indicated your postal address. 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/....
Yours faithfully,
Access to documents team (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency
Dear [email address],
My postal address is:
Nikolaj Nielsen
DHL Service Point
EPICERIE LIBRAIRIE POUYA
CHAUSSEE D'ALSEMBERG 9
1060 SINT-GILLIS
Brussels
Yours sincerely,
N. Nielsen
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(2021)1316445 - RE: access to documents request - Sanctions ---
Ref. Gestdem 2021/795
Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG ECHO request email]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG ECHO request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Sir,
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents,
which was registered on 17/02/2021 under reference number GESTDEM
2021/795.
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 10/03/2021. 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 (rc)
SG.C.1
Transparency
Dear Mr Nielsen,
We refer to your e-mail of 17 February 2021in which you make a request
for access to documents, registered on 17 February 2021 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 10 March 2021.
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 31 March 2021.
We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
The access to document Team
European Commission
Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid
Operations
Unit E.3 – Contracts and Finances
Loi 86 06/049
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229 84078
[1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mr Nielsen,
Please find attached our answer to your request for access to document with reference 2021/0795 signed by our Director General.
Kind regards,
The access to document Team
European Commission
Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations
Unit E.3 – Contracts and Finances
Loi 86 06/049
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229 84078
[email address]
Dear Mr Nielsen,
The European Commission requires that its partners have in place effective
and coordinated prevention, reporting and response mechanisms to sexual
exploitation, abuse and harassment. Any organisation receiving EU funds
for humanitarian aid has a duty to abide by the highest ethical and
professional standards.
Since 2018, DG ECHO has reviewed and further reinforced its policies and
requirements. In 2018, DG ECHO sent a letter to all EU funded humanitarian
organisations to remind them of their strict obligations. The letter
requested a detailed description of all measures in place.
All replies were scrutinised to ensure compliance with standards. Where
required, additional information/clarification was requested from the
partners. Those few who did not provide sufficient assurance on the
adequacy of their policies were requested to submit an action plan to
address the gaps identified, and a few did not have their FPA renewed.
As from 2021, the Commission has worked with NGOs that have been awarded
the EU Humanitarian Partnership Certificate (successor of the FPA). The
Certificate is awarded to organisations that, as a result of the positive
assessment of their partnership application (more information on the
application process can be found on the page ‘Become a DG ECHO Partner’),
are considered suitable to apply for EU funding for the implementation of
humanitarian aid actions.
Failure to have adequate and functioning mechanisms in place, or to
appropriately address cases of misconduct when they occur, can lead to a
series of actions by the Commission such as suspension of payments,
reduction of grants, suspension of the action concerned, termination of
the grant agreement, and not entering into new grant agreements . The
Commission can also suspend and/or terminate the EU Humanitarian
Partnership Certificate with the NGO concerned.
Since 2018, allegations received by DG ECHO from various sources and
self-reporting from organisations, resulted in different types of
follow-up actions in 204 cases. In 7 cases, the Commission concluded that
the due diligence was not exercised and took contractual follow up
actions.
It is important to underline as well that the Commission as a donor does
not have judicial competence, which rests with the national authorities.
Kind regards,
ECHO Safeguarding Team