WTO e-commerce July negotiation round

Maximilian Henning made this Informationsfreiheit request to Generaldirektion Handel

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Die Anfrage war erfolgreich.

Maximilian Henning

Dear Trade,

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:

- The flash report on the WTO e-commerce negotiation round in July
- All documents on the small group negotiations on privacy

Yours faithfully,

Maximilian Henning

TRADE-ACCES-DOCUMENTS@ec.europa.eu, Generaldirektion Handel

1 Attachment

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your request for access to documents.

Unfortunately, you have not indicated your postal address.

However, 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:

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/....

 

Yours faithfully,

DG TRADE Access to Documents Team

European Commission
Directorate General for Trade
Unit R3 – Transparency, Civil Society and Communications
CHAR
1049 Brussels
Belgium

[2]cid:image001.png@01D83210.3BD72290

Make your voice heard
Conference on the Future of Europe | #TheFutureIsYours |
[3]futureu.europa.eu

 

 

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Maximilian Henning

Dear [email address],

My postal address is as follows:

Maximilian Henning
[REDACTED]
[REDACTED]
[REDACTED]

Yours sincerely,

Maximilian Henning

TRADE-ACCES-DOCUMENTS@ec.europa.eu, Generaldirektion Handel

1 Attachment

Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your e-mail of today, 23 August 2022.We hereby acknowledge
receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered
on the same day under reference number GestDem 2022/4759.

 

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 13
September 2022. In case this time-limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course.

 

For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
[1]Privacy statement – access to documents.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

DG TRADE Access to Documents Team

European Commission
Directorate General for Trade
Unit R3 – Transparency, Civil Society and Communications
CHAR
1049 Brussels
Belgium

[2]cid:image001.png@01D83210.3BD72290

Make your voice heard
Conference on the Future of Europe | #TheFutureIsYours |
[3]futureu.europa.eu

 

References

Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
3. https://futureu.europa.eu/

TRADE-ACCES-DOCUMENTS@ec.europa.eu, Generaldirektion Handel

1 Attachment

Dear Sir,

We refer to your e-mail of  23 August 2022 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on the same day 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 13 September 2022.

An extended time limit is needed because of the high number of requests
currently being handled.

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 4 October 2022.

We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.

Yours faithfully,

DG TRADE Access to Documents Team

European Commission
Directorate General for Trade
Unit R3 – Transparency, Civil Society and Communications
CHAR
1049 Brussels
Belgium

[1]cid:image001.png@01D83210.3BD72290

Make your voice heard
Conference on the Future of Europe | #TheFutureIsYours |
[2]futureu.europa.eu

 

References

Visible links
2. https://futureu.europa.eu/

TRADE-B2-PENDING@ec.europa.eu, Generaldirektion Handel

1 Attachment

Dear Mr. Henning,

 

Please see attached the reply regarding your request.

 

According to our standard operational procedure, you would have also
received the letter by registered mail. However, due to the extraordinary
health and security measures currently in force during to the COVID-19
epidemic, which requires all Commission’s non-critical staff to telework,
we are unfortunately not in a position to follow this procedure until
further notice.

 

We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm receipt of the present
e-mail by replying to this email with copy to
[1][DG TRADE request email]

 

Kind regards,

 

European Commission

TRADE B.2.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DG TRADE request email]

TRADE-ACCES-DOCUMENTS@ec.europa.eu, Generaldirektion Handel

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Henning,

 

Please find attached our reply to your request GestDem 2022/4759

 

According to our standard operational procedure, you would have also
received the letter by registered mail. However, due to the extraordinary
health and security measures currently in force during to the COVID-19
epidemic, which requires all Commission’s non-critical staff to telework,
we are unfortunately not in a position to follow this procedure until
further notice.

 

We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm receipt of the present
e-mail by replying to [1][DG TRADE request email].

 

Kind regards,

 

DG TRADE Access to Documents Team

European Commission
Directorate General for Trade
Unit R3 – Transparency, Civil Society and Communications
CHAR
1049 Brussels
Belgium

[2]cid:image001.png@01D83210.3BD72290

Make your voice heard
Conference on the Future of Europe | #TheFutureIsYours |
[3]futureu.europa.eu

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DG TRADE request email]
3. https://futureu.europa.eu/

Maximilian Henning

Dear [email address],

I can confirm receipt of your mail and the attached document.

Yours sincerely,

Maximilian Henning

Dear Trade,

Thank you for your work on my request. 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 'WTO e-commerce July negotiation round'.

1. The definition of public interest as regards international relations is overly broad.

You stated that release of the documents request by me would undermine the public interest as regards international relations, since the documents include positions of other WTO members that they have not made public. You also stated that documents (1) and (2) include information on EU strategic objectives and negotiating positions.

I would first like to point out that I have already requested several flash reports on the WTO e-commerce negotiations and received them. I would therefore request that you re-examine document (1) and (2) as to whether their contents have changed in such a manner from previous flash reports that they can now no longer be disclosed.

I would also like to point out that the General Court of the Court of Justice has confirmed that simply because a document concerns an interest protected by an exception, that is not sufficient to make it subject to that exception. It is not sufficient that the disclosure of a document could bring a hypothetical harm to a protected interest; there must be a reasonably foreseeable risk (Case T-233/09, judgement of 22 March 2011, ECLI:EU:T:2011:105). A claim of harm does not concretely demonstrate the potential of this harm to such an extent that it would compensate denying the fundamental right of access to documents.

2. The option of partial disclosure has not been sufficiently considered.

You stated that "partial access would be meaningless because the parts of the documents that could be disclosed would be of no use, and that therefore access to the requested documents has to be refused."

However, as quoted by you, article 4(6) of Regulation 1049/2001 states that "If only parts of the requested document are covered by any of the exceptions, the remaining parts of the document shall be released." This does not include a provision on partially released documents having to be of use. I would therefore ask you to re-examine a potential application of this provision.

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/wto_e...

Yours faithfully,

Maximilian Henning

TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS, Generaldirektion Handel

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping

[4]RE: Internal review of access to documents request - WTO e-commerce
July negotiation round - Ares(2022)7839339  (Please use this link only if
you are an Ares user – Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes
un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)

Dear Mr. Henning,

Could you please specify the reference number (GestDem/EASE) of your
related initial request?

Thank you very much in advance!

Kind regards,

DG TRADE Access to Documents Team

 

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Dear TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS,

Thank you for your response and sorry for forgetting to include the reference number. It is GestDem 2022/4759.

Yours sincerely,

Maximilian Henning

sg-acc-doc@ec.europa.eu,

Dear Sir or Madam,

We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2022/4759, sent on 15/11/2022 and registered on 17/11/2022.

We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 08/12/2022. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.

Yours faithfully,

Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission

sg-acc-doc@ec.europa.eu,

Subject: Your confirmatory application for access to documents under
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – GESTDEM 2022/4759

 

Dear Mr Henning,

I refer to your e-mail of 17 November 2022, registered on the same day, by
which you submit a confirmatory application in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents (hereafter ‘Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001’).

I would like to inform you that your confirmatory application is currently
being handled.

Unfortunately, due to ongoing consultations, we are not in a position to
reply to your confirmatory request within the prescribed time limit
expiring on 8 December 2022. Consequently, we have to extend this period
by another 15 working days in accordance with Article 8(2) of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001. The new deadline expires on 9 January 2023.

Yours sincerely,

sg-acc-doc@ec.europa.eu,

Dear Mr Henning,

I refer to your e-mail of 17 November 2022, registered on the same day, by
which you submit a confirmatory application in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents (hereafter ‘Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001’).

I also refer to our holding reply of 8 December 2022, by which the time
limit for replying to your confirmatory application was extended by 15
working days, pursuant to Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.

I regret to have to inform you that we will not be able to respond within
the extended time limit, which expires on 9 January 2023, as we have not
yet finalised the necessary consultations.

However, I can assure you that we are doing our utmost to conclude these
proceedings in order to provide you with a final reply as soon as
possible.

We regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.

Yours sincerely,

SG.C1 Access to Documents Team

Sg-Acc-Doc@ec.europa.eu, Generaldirektion Handel

3 Attachments

Dear Sir,

 

Please find attached the electronic version of Commission Decision
C(2024)1923 as adopted by the European Commission on 18.03.2024.

 

The formal notification of the decision under Article 297 TFEU is being
made only in electronic form.

 

Could you please confirm receipt of the attached document by return
e-mail?

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Kind regards,

 

Access to documents team - cr
SG.C.1
Transparency