Ticketed Luncheon European Ombudsman with the American Bar Association - Fall 2008
Arun Dohle made this Informationsfreiheit request to Europäische Bürgerbeauftragte
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Dear European Ombudsman,
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 correspondence, documents, audio/video material related to the 2008 Fall Meeting of the American Bar Association, including invitation for ticketed luncheon with the European Ombudsman. Including the list of participants.
Yours faithfully,
Arun Dohle
Against Child Trafficking
Keizersgracht 482
1017EG Amsterdam
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
Sent by ve_ombu.euroombudsman (OMBU) <[European Ombudsman request email]>. All
responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_ombu.euroombudsman (OMBU) <[European Ombudsman request email]>. Toutes
les réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr Dohle,
Thank you for your request for public access to documents that you
submitted to the European Ombudsman’s Office on 21/12/2023.
Your request has been registered today under reference
[5]Ares(2023)8804057.
It will be dealt with in accordance with Regulation 1049/2001 regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents and
the Decision of the European Ombudsman on internal procedures for dealing
with applications for public access to documents and requests for
information.
We will deal with your request as soon as possible and reply to you no
later than 23/01/2024 (15 working days from the date of registration of
your request).
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Office by
telephone: + 33 (0)3 88 17 23 13 or e-mail: [6][European Ombudsman request email].
Yours sincerely,
[7]cid:image003.png@01D86A9B.093A7210 European Ombudsman
Access to Documents and Freedom of
Information Team
1 avenue du Président Robert Schuman
CS 30403
F - 67001 Strasbourg Cedex
[8]www.ombudsman.europa.eu
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01DA3419.9F062DE0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
6. mailto:[European Ombudsman request email]
8. European Ombudsman Home Page
http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
Sent by ve_ombu.euroombudsman (OMBU) <[European Ombudsman request email]>. All
responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_ombu.euroombudsman (OMBU) <[European Ombudsman request email]>. Toutes
les réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr Dohle,
By e-mail of 21 December 2023, you requested public access to documents
containing the following information:
“All correspondence, documents, audio/video material related to the 2008
Fall Meeting of the American Bar Association, including invitation for
ticketed luncheon with the European Ombudsman. Including the list of
participants”.
Your request was registered on 21 December 2023 under reference number
[5]Ares(2023)8804057. Due to the public holidays in the EU institutions,
the time limit for replying to your request expires on 23 January 2024.
We have dealt with your request in accordance with Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001[6][1] regarding public access to European Parliament, Council
and Commission documents as well as the Decision of the European Ombudsman
on the handling of requests for public access to documents[7][2].
We have identified the following three documents as falling under the
scope of your request:
• speech by the European Ombudsman Professor P. Nikiforos Diamandouros at
the fall meeting of the American Bar Association (Brussels, 25 September
2008);
• thank you letter sent by the European Ombudsman to the American Bar
Association on 1 October 2008; and
• thank you letter sent by the American Bar Association to the European
Ombudsman on 9 October 2008.
We went through several systems to check whether there could be any
further documents falling under the scope of your request. However, since
almost 16 years have passed since the event in question took place, I
regret that we could not find any. This may be so due to the rules on
retention of documents. For financial documents, for instance, the
authorising officer must keep the supporting documents for a period of at
least five years from the date on which discharge is granted by the
European Parliament for the budgetary year to which those documents would
relate. As the 2008 budget discharge was voted on by Parliament in 2010,
we were required to keep any financial supporting documents of 2008 at
least until 2015. After the expiry of this deadline, the authorising
officer was entitled to destroy the documents.
We have decided to grant you partial access to the three documents thus
identified. We have redacted the documents with a view to protecting
personal data in accordance with Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001
and with Regulation 2018/1725[8][3]. According to Article 4(1)(b) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, access to a document (or parts thereof)
shall be refused if its disclosure would undermine the protection of
privacy and the integrity of the individual. Article 3(1) of Regulation
(EU) No 2018/1725 states that personal data means “any information
relating to an identified or identifiable natural person [...]”.
If you wish to have access to the personal data deleted in this way, you
may submit a corresponding request. It should be noted that, pursuant to
Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, personal data shall only be
transmitted to recipients established in the Union other than Union
institutions and bodies if “the recipient demonstrates that it is
necessary for the data to be transmitted for a specific purpose of public
interest and the controller, where there is reason to assume that the
legitimate interests of the data subject might be prejudiced, demonstrates
that it is proportionate to transmit the personal data for that specific
purpose after a demonstrable assessment of the various conflicting
interests”. It would therefore be necessary to demonstrate, in your
potential request, the need to have the personal data transferred for a
specific purpose of public interest and that its disclosure would not
prejudice the legitimate interests of others.
Should you wish to challenge this decision, you may request a review under
Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001 (‘confirmatory application’
procedure). You may do so by sending an e-mail to
[9][European Ombudsman request email] within 15 working days of having received this
decision. Our Secretariat-General would then handle the review request.
You are welcome to contact me through our office e-mail with any questions
or requests for clarifications you may have.
Please find enclosed a copy of the three documents.
Yours sincerely,
Eija Salonen
Transparency Officer
European Ombudsman
1 avenue du Président Robert Schuman
CS 30403
F - 67001 Strasbourg Cedex
[10]www.ombudsman.europa.eu
────────────────────────
[11][1] Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,
Council and Commission documents:
[12]https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/....
[13][2] Decision of the European Ombudsman on internal procedures for
dealing with applications for public access to documents and requests for
information: [14]https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/docum....
[15][3] Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with
regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions,
bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and
repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC:
[16]https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/....
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01DA4DDF.955B3800
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
6. file:///tmp/foiextract20240123-476185-86wlv1#_ftn1
7. file:///tmp/foiextract20240123-476185-86wlv1#_ftn2
8. file:///tmp/foiextract20240123-476185-86wlv1#_ftn3
9. mailto:[European Ombudsman request email]
10. European Ombudsman Home Page
http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/
11. file:///tmp/foiextract20240123-476185-86wlv1#_ftnref1
12. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
13. file:///tmp/foiextract20240123-476185-86wlv1#_ftnref2
14. https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/docum...
15. file:///tmp/foiextract20240123-476185-86wlv1#_ftnref3
16. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear European Ombudsman,
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 'Ticketed Luncheon European Ombudsman with the American Bar Association - Fall
2008'.
I did not receive the invitation and the participants list as requested. If the speech and the
thankyou letters are on file, the invitation and participants list should be on file as well in your
institution, which is a public administration that needs to maintain records that are registered
and archived for reasons of transparency and accountability.
Furthermore, in the documents received the name of the Chair/President of ABA is blackened.
Details about those in charge of official organisations are in the public domain and should be
rendered public in this case in the public interest.
The American Bar Association does qualify as an American lobbying organisation, which hosted
this conference in Brussels and The Hague in the framework of the influencing EU policies. It is
noteworthy that the ticketed luncheon was followed by a presentation by the stakeholders of the
intercountry adoption ‘playfield’, which is an extra reason that all the details be disclosed in the
public interest.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this
address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/tick...
Yours faithfully,
Arun Dohle
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
Sent by ve_ombu.euroombudsman (OMBU) <[European Ombudsman request email]>. All
responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_ombu.euroombudsman (OMBU) <[European Ombudsman request email]>. Toutes
les réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr Dohle,
We acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application which we
registered on 25/01/2024.
We will do our best to come back to you as soon as possible, and in any
case, within the 15 working days foreseen by the applicable rules.
If you have any questions, please contact Jennifer King on
[5][European Ombudsman request email].
Yours sincerely,
Jennifer King
Legal Expert
European Ombudsman
1 avenue du Président Robert Schuman
CS 30403
F - 67001 Strasbourg Cedex
[6]www.ombudsman.europa.eu
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01DA503E.BE569270
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. mailto:[European Ombudsman request email]
6. European Ombudsman Home Page
http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/
Dear Mr Dohle,
Please find attached the decision regarding your request for review.
Best regards,
[1]cid:image003.png@01D86A04.2A392070 Secretariat
European Ombudsman
Directorate of Inquiries
[2][European Ombudsman request email]
[3]www.ombudsman.europa.eu
References
Visible links
2. file:///tmp/[European Ombudsman request email]
3. European Ombudsman Home Page
http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/
Arun Dohle hat eine Nachricht hinterlassen ()
The Office of the European Ombudsman did not properly register or archive the invitation for a ticketed luncheon by the American Bar Organisation. Nor is there a list of (paid) participants.
The American Bar Association promotes the Hague Convention that are legalising the cross-border trafficking of children.