Submissions to CJEU in Privacy International and LQDN et al.
Dear Legal Service,
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 written submissions made to the Court in
* Joined Cases C-511/18, C-512/18 and C-520/18 and
* Case C-623/17
Yours faithfully,
TJ McIntyre
[1]Ares(2020)5769797 - Your access to documents request - Address
Sent by ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. All responses
have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr McIntyre,
Thank you for your below-mentioned request for access to documents.
Unfortunately, you have not indicated your postal address which 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 the electronic form for entering your request:
[2]http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/...
Kindly note that the "AsktheEU.org" website 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. Hence, the European Commission
is not responsible for any possible processing of personal data by the
private organisation running the AsktheEU.org website, through which you
have channelled your request. Please refer to their privacy policy.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents team
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[email address]
Dear ve_sj.acces docs (SJ),
My postal address is:
Dr TJ McIntyre
Associate Professor
UCD Sutherland School of Law
Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
Yours sincerely,
TJ McIntyre
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2020)6031914 - Your request for access to documents - Fair
Solution proposal
Sent by ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. All responses
have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr McIntyre,
Acknowledgement of receipt
We refer to your email of 22 October 2020 by which you submit a request
for access to documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
You have lodged your applications via the “AsktheEU.org” website. Please
note that this is 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.
Also, kindly note that this private third party ̶ running the
AsktheEU.org website ̶ is responsible and accountable for the processing
of your personal data via this website and not the European Commission.
For more information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s
privacy policy.
Furthermore, the third party usually publishes on this website the content
of the applicants’ correspondence with the European Commission. This
includes personal data which you have communicated to the European
Commission (e.g. your private postal address, contact details, etc.) as
well as any reply which the European Commission will send to you.
Should you not wish your correspondence with the European Commission to be
published on the AsktheEU.org website, you can provide us with an
alternative, private e-mail address, for future correspondence. In this
case, the European Commission will send all electronic correspondence
addressed to you to the private email you have provided.
Documents requested
Your request concerns all written submissions made to the Court in
· Joined Cases C-511/18, C-512/18 and C-520/18
· in Case C-623/17.
Please be informed that Cases C-511/18 and C-512/18 were joined for the
purpose of the written and the oral procedure and for the judgment. Case
C-520/18 was joined to Cases C-511/18 and C-512/18 for the purpose of the
judgment only.
The Legal Service has established a list of the documents concerned by
your request (table attached). As you will see, the number of documents
requested is 56, 53 of which originate from Member States and other third
parties: 19 documents in Joined Cases C-511/18 and C-512/18; 20 documents
in Case C-520/18 and 17 documents in Case C-623/17.
Language of the proceedings and availability of documents
English was the language of the procedure in Case C-623/17. Therefore, the
17 documents concerned are available in English.
Regarding Joined Cases C-511/18 and C-512/18 and Case C-520/18, French was
the language of the proceedings. The documents concerned are available in
French and in the language of each Member State, with the exception of the
submissions of third parties other than Member States, which are only
available in French. The only documents available in English are the
submissions made by Ireland and the [ADDRESS REDACTED].
Assessment of documents and consultation of third parties
Please note that regarding the Commission’s documents (3 documents), the
Legal Service has to carry out a concrete assessment of each document
before taking the decision of granting / refusing access. This is to
guarantee that they can actually be disclosed and do not contain any
information that should be covered by any of the exceptions of Regulation
1049/2001, despite the fact that these cases are no longer pending before
the Court.
With regard to the documents originating from third parties (53
documents), the Commission has to consult those parties according to
Article 4(4) of Regulation 1049/2001, which provides that the institution
shall consult the third parties with a view to assessing whether an
exception in paragraph 1 of 2 is applicable. Therefore, the Legal Service
will consult the third parties setting a deadline of 10 working days, in
order for them to communicate the conclusions of their assessments. This
consultation period adds an additional administrative step to the handling
of your requests.
Once the process of consultation concluded, the Legal Service will have to
proceed to a final assessment of the documents in the light of the
comments received and, where necessary, to redact the parts of the
documents to which one or several exceptions apply. Finally, it will have
to draft the reply, submit it to the review and approval by the competent
persons and prepare the reply and documents for dispatch.
Fair solution proposal
In view of the large number of documents concerned by your request and the
consultation procedure referred to above, it will not be possible for the
Legal Service to provide you with a reply within the time limit set by
Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001. In this respect, please also note that
the Commission cannot privilege one applicant and has to guarantee that
all the requests are dealt with within the deadlines of Regulation
1049/2001 or, where not possible – as in the present case – to seek for a
fair solution in conformity with Article 6(3) that reconciles the
interests of the applicant with those of good administration.
In accordance with the case-law of the EU Courts, a fair solution can only
concern the content or the number of documents applied for, not the
deadline for replying (judgment of 2 October 2014 in Case C-127/13, Guido
Strack v. Commission, EU:C:2014:2250, paragraphs 26-28). This means that
the scope of your request must be narrowed down in a way that would enable
its treatment within the extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days.
In view of the foregoing, we would like to propose a fair solution that
enables us to reconcile your interest with the principle of good
administration and without prejudice to other applicants’ requests.
The Legal Service considers that it would be in a position to deal, within
the extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days from the date of
registration of your request:
̶ with the 3 Commission’s submissions and with 12 other submissions made
by third parties, to be chosen by you from those indicated in the attached
table;
̶ alternatively, with the submissions made in Case C-623/17, since all of
them are available in English, as explained above.
Kindly send your agreement to this proposal, to the following email
address: [6][SJ request email]
Once we receive your reply, we will proceed to the registration of your
request and will start running the deadline indicated above to deal with
it.
Your sincerely,
Access to Documents team
[7]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[8][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D6AD0D.B1B46CE0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
6. mailto:[SJ request email]
8. mailto:[email address]
Dear Access to Documents Team
Thank you for your email. I would be obliged for the submissions filed in C-623/17 and - since you will have to contact Ireland in any event - I propose that you could also include the two Irish submissions in C-511/18 and C-512/18, and C-520/18 without a significant additional burden.
Yours sincerely,
TJ McIntyre
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2020)6093350 - Your requests for Access to Documents -
Confirmation of registration
Sent by ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. All responses
have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr McIntyre,
Thank you for accepting our fair solution proposal.
Your requests concerning
· the written submissions filed in Case C-623/17 Privacy
International
· the submissions made by Ireland in Joined Cases C-511/18 La
Quadrature du Net and C-512/18 French Data Network
· the submissions made by Ireland in Case C-520/18 Ordre des barreaux
francophones et germanophone
have been registered on 28 October 2020 under reference: GestDem
2020/6376.
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+15 working days. The time limit will expire on
10 December 2020.
We shall inform you in due course, in case this time limit needs to be
extended.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents team
[6]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[7][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D6ADE8.8E1F1D30
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2020)7500445 - Your request for Access to Documents - Reference:
GestDem2020/6376
Sent by ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. All responses
have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr McIntyre,
Attached, please find the Legal Service’s reply to your above-referenced
request for access to documents, as per the Fair Solution proposal agreed
upon on 28 October 2020.
Please note the attachments (11 in total) are being sent to you in more
than one email.
Under the current COVID-19 pandemic circumstances, the Commission is
unable to send you the original of this reply by Registered Mail.
In the light of this, we kindly ask you to confirm and acknowledge, by
return email, receipt of the Commission Legal Service’s reply as well as
its attachments.
Thank you for your understanding
Kind regards,
Access to Documents team
[6]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[7][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D6CF04.8C86ED80
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2020)7500576 - Your request for Access to Documents - Reference:
GestDem2020/6376
Sent by ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. All responses
have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr McIntyre,
Attached, please find the Legal Service’s reply to your above-referenced
request for access to documents, as per the Fair Solution proposal agreed
upon on 28 October 2020.
Please note the attachments (11 in total) are being sent to you in more
than one email. This being the second part.
Under the current COVID-19 pandemic circumstances, the Commission is
unable to send you the original of this reply by Registered Mail.
In the light of this, we kindly ask you to confirm and acknowledge, by
return email, receipt of the Commission Legal Service’s reply as well as
its attachments.
Thank you for your understanding
Kind regards,
Access to Documents team
[6]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10
European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[7][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D6CF04.4D6D0EE0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]
Dear Access to Documents team
Thank you for these submissions. However I don't seem to see the Irish submissions among them. Could you send those on also please?
Yours sincerely,
TJ McIntyre
Dear Access to Documents team
Please disregard my last email - I see now from your decision letter that the Irish government has refused access to their written observations.
Yours sincerely,
TJ McIntyre