HEAD OF LEGAL AND ASSURANCE SERVICES
Parma, 08 June 2017
Ref. DD/CP/mm (2017) – out-17847013
Nina Holland
Agribusiness campaign
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
26, Rue d'Edimbourg
BE-1050 Brussels
Belgium
e-mail: ask+request-4286-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Re:
Your request for public access to documents of 12 May 2017
Our ref: PAD 2017/036
Dear Ms Holland,
I refer to your request for public access to documents submitted on 12 May 2017
through AsktheEU website, by means of which you requested access to:
“1. Any documents between December 2013 and December 2015, including briefings,
reports, correspondence (email or other), where the active substance glyphosate is
concerned or mentioned, between officials/representatives/experts of EFSA and
officials/representatives of:
-
Monsanto or any other company producing glyphosate
-
Glyphosate Task Force
-
Hume Brophy or any other firm representing industry with an interest in glyphosate
-
European Crop Protection Association (ECPA)
-
representatives of the US administration, including agencies such as the EPA and the
FDA
-
representatives of the German government
-
the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment BfR
2. A list of meetings, as well as agendas and minutes any other reports of such
meetings, between December 2013 and now, where the active substance glyphosate
is concerned or mentioned, between officials/representatives/experts of EFSA and
officials/representatives of the entities mentioned in the list under 1.
3. All access to documents requests sent to EFSA on glyphosate (minus CEO's) since
2012.”
We have assessed your request in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on
public access to documents1 (hereinafter the “PAD Regulation”) with the following
outcome:
1. Partial disclosure – 1st batch (point 3 of your request)
Under the third point of your request you asked for “
all access to documents requests
sent to EFSA on glyphosate” except for the ones submitted by CEO. We are pleased to
give you access to a list of all requests for public access to documents submitted to EFSA
in relation to glyphosate at large and not only concerning the EFSA peer review of
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, OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43-48,
applicable to EFSA.
European Food Safety Authority • Via Carlo Magno 1A • 43126 Parma • ITALY
Tel. + 39 0521 036 111 • Fax + 39 0521 036 110 • www.efsa.europa.eu
glyphosate as an active substance under Regulation (EC) No 1107/20092 since the year
2012. The list is enclosed to the present letter.
Should you however wish to receive every single letter and e-mail requesting access to
documents, please do not hesitate to contact us, so we can proceed liaising with the
third parties authors of the requests, in accordance with the PAD Regulation Article 4(4).
Please note that personal data (i.e. names of individuals and other personal data)
present in all the requests disclosed have been masked in accordance with Article
4(1)(b) of the PAD Regulation and Article 8(b) of the Data Protection Regulation (EC) No
45/2001. In line with the settled case law of the Union Courts3, EFSA will only be able to
balance the interests at stake and to consider the disclosure of personal data after you
have provided an express and legitimate justification and convincing arguments in order
to demonstrate the necessity of having personal data transferred to you.
We hope you find the disclosed document useful. I must remind you that all persons
reproducing, redistributing, exploiting or making commercial use of this information are
expected to adhere to the terms and conditions asserted by the copyright holder.
In view of the large number of documents concerned by your request, in particular the
remaining points 1 and 2, as well as the need for third-party consultations in accordance
with Article 4(4) of the PAD Regulation, EFSA would like to propose you a fair solution in
application of Article 6(3) of the PAD Regulation4. EFSA proposes to reply in batches
along the process of finalisation of the consultations and following a case-by-case
assessment of the set of documents falling into the scope of your request.
EFSA will provide you with a second batch of documents in complement to the present
disclosure by
Thursday 29 June 2017 at the latest.
2. Confirmatory application
To exercise your right to appeal against this decision by a confirmatory application, you
may write to EFSA at the address below. You have fifteen working days from receipt of
this letter to appeal. Beyond this deadline, your initial request will be considered as fully
satisfied. In case you submit a confirmatory application, EFSA will inform you of the
outcome of this re-examination of your request within fifteen working days of receipt,
either by granting you access to the documents or by confirming the refusal. In the
latter case, you will also be informed of any further appeal routes available. Please note
that you can also exercise your right to appeal against this decision after the final reply
to all the points of your request will be sent to you (final batch).
Further correspondence must be sent to:
EFSA
Dirk Detken, Head of the Legal and Assurance Services
Via Carlo Magno 1/A
I-43126 Parma
e-mail:
xxxx.xxxxxx.xxxxxx.xx.xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxxxxx.xx Yours sincerely,
[SIGNED]
Dirk Detken
Encl: 1
2 Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009
concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives
79/117/EEC and 91/414/EEC, OJ L 309, 24.11.2009, p. 1–50, as last amended.
3 See Judgment in Case C-28/08 P, European Commission v The Bavarian Lager Co. Ltd., EU:C:2010:378.
4 “
In the event of an application relating to a very long document or to a very large number of documents,
the institution concerned may confer with the applicant informally, with a view of finding a fair solution”.
2