Ref. Ares(2017)2346887 - 08/05/2017
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL JUSTICE and CONSUMERS
The Director General
Brussels, 08 May 2017
Rejo Zenger
Bits of Freedom
Prinseneiland 97hs
1013 LN AMSTERDAM
Netherlands
By registered letter with
acknowledgment of receipt
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref. GestDem No 2017/2262
We refer to your message dated 11/04/2017 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 11/04/2017 under the above mentioned reference number.
You request access to all documents which contain information about the meeting of
Commissioner Věra Jourová and US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on March 29th,
2017, in which they discussed "the problem of encryption". You are also requesting all
documents which contain information about the proposal on the same topic that was
announced by Ms. Jourová right after the meeting.
Your application concerns the following documents:
- Report of the Visit of Commissioner Jourová to the US.
- Note to the College - Visit of Commissioner Jourová to Washington DC, INFO (2017) 20
Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, I regret to inform you that your
application cannot be granted, as disclosure is prevented by exceptions to the right of access
laid down in Article 4 of this Regulation.
The documents which you seek to obtain contain information about international political
meetings, where the participants have an expectation of confidentiality and a public release
of such information would undermine the trust of foreign counterparts in their exchanges
with the European Commission representatives. Furthermore, disclosure of the documents
would reveal issues under consideration by the foreign counterpart, on which a final
decision has not been taken and which have not been made public.
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Office: MO59 08/10 - Tel. direct line +32 229-20678
The disclosure of the documents requested would therefore undermine the protection of
international relations, as laid down in Article 4(1) (a) third indent of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001.
We have considered whether partial access could be granted to the documents requested,
however the remaining parts after expunging the confidential information would not contain
information relevant to your request.
Nevertheless, we would like to take this opportunity to clarify certain aspects in relation to
the substance of your request, to give you the state of play and to clarify a misunderstanding
from the twitter reference which you provided. As mentioned in the press release following
the March meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union1, there
are ongoing exchanges on two issues: access to electronic evidence and encryption. Even if
linked, the two issues are treated separately. The European Commission intends to present
an options paper on access to electronic evidence for consideration at the June meeting of
the Council of the European Union (Justice and Home Affairs). On encryption, there is
currently no intention to present legislative proposals. Work in this field is at an earlier
stage.
Should these clarifications not be sufficient, in accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation
1049/2001, you are entitled to make a confirmatory application requesting the Commission
to review this position.
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days upon receipt
of this letter to the Secretary-General of the Commission at the following address:
European Commission
Secretary-General
Transparency unit SG-B-4
BERL 5/282
B-1049 Bruxelles
or by email to:
xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
[e-signed]
Tiina ASTOLA
1 www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/jha/2017/03/st07688_en17_pdf/
2
Electronically signed on 05/05/2017 17:40 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563