Ceci est une version HTML d'une pièce jointe de la demande d'accès à l'information 'Access to documents data'.



 
Ref. Ares(2013)1035571 - 13/05/2013
EUROPEAN EXTERNAL ACTION SERVICE 
 
 Corporate 
Board 
Secretariat 
 
 
Brussels,  
EEAS 
 
REPORT ON ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS 
FOR THE YEARS 2011 AND 2012 
 
 

A. Introduction 
 
Article 17.1 of Regulation (EC) n° 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and 
Commission documents 1 (hereafter referred to as “the Regulation”) provides that “Each 
institution shall publish annually a report for the preceding year including the number of 
cases in which the institution refused to grant access to documents, the reasons for such 
refusals and the number of sensitive documents not recorded in the register.”
  
 
The entry into force of the Council Decision establishing the European External Action 
Service in July 2010 2 and the subsequent creation of the new service under the authority 
of the High Representative on 1 January 2011 constituted a new administrative challenge 
as the newly created service had to build its own administrative structure, distinct from 
those of the European Commission and of the General Secretariat of the Council 
respectively. 
 
This report is the first report on access to documents for the European External Action 
Service and it covers the two first years of existence of the EEAS, 2011 and 2012. 
                                                 
1  
OJ L145, 31.5.2001, p. 43. 
2  
Council Decision 2010/427/EU of 26th July 2010, OJ L201, 3.8.2010, p. 30. 
Service Européen pour l'Action Extérieure, B-1046 Bruxelles / Europese dienst voor extern optreden, B-1046 Brussel - 
Belgium. Telephone: (32-2) 584 11 11. 

B. Regulatory, administrative and practical measures 
 
Pursuant to Art. 1 of the Council Decision establishing the European External Action 
Service 3 and in order to comply with the Regulation, the High Representative has taken 
on 19th July, 2011, a Decision on the EEAS rules regarding Access to documents. The 
Decision has been published in the Official Journal C243 dated 20/8/2011, p. 16. 
 
This Decision does in particular provide for rules for processing initial and confirmatory 
applications, procedures for consultation concerning third party documents held by the 
EEAS, as well as requests for consultation received from other institutions or from 
Member States. 
 
The task of Access to Document Co-ordinator was given to the Corporate Board 
Secretariat, which was staffed as appropriate. 
 
 
C. Key developments 
 
The first tasks of the Access to Document Co-ordinator when appointed in May 2011 
have been to: 
ƒ  Create a first webpage for access to documents, with the view to facilitate access to 
the documents held by the EEAS; 
ƒ  Set up a registry for requests for access to documents received by the EEAS; 
ƒ  Deal with incoming requests. 
 
The first webpage for access to documents held by the EEAS has been operational since 
the summer 2011. It can be reached under the “EU and citizens” tab on the EEAS index 
webpage. It includes a reference to the Regulation, as well as to the HR Decision 
regarding Access to documents. 
The webpage gives access to a webform enabling the user to send a request for access to 
documents, as well as contact details by post or fax. 
 
It is envisaged to set up a public register of documents for the EEAS: this public registry 
will allow access to documents webpage. The EEAS register has already been set up by a 
decision by the Chief Operating Officer (PROC EEAS(2011) 004 and the IT application 
to put it online is being developed . 
 
A register for requests for access to documents received by the EEAS has been set up. It 
mainly aims at monitoring the follow up of the requests inside the EEAS and keeping 
track of the documents to which access has been given under a preceding request. 
 
                                                 
3  
And in particular, its paragraphs 2 and 3, stating :  
“2. The EEAS, which has its headquarters in Brussels, shall be a functionally autonomous body of 
the European Union, separate from the General Secretariat of the Council and from the 
Commission with the legal capacity necessary to perform its tasks and attain its objectives. 
3. The EEAS shall be placed under the authority of the High Representative of the Union for 
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (‘High Representative’).” 

D. Initial applications for access to documents 
 
The EEAS has dealt with two main types of requests for access to documents in 2011/12. 
 
•  On the one hand it has provided advice to the Secretariat General of the European 
Commission for requests for access to documents addressed to the services of the 
European Commission using the application form for access to a document held 
by the Commission. 
•  On the other hand it has treated requests for access to documents held by the 
EEAS, received via its own access to documents webform and postal and fax 
addresses. 
 
It should be noted that the statistics below reflect the number of applications and not of 
requested documents. In practice, applications may cover a single document or, in 
numerous cases, several documents, or even entire files concerning a specific issue. 
 
The following table indicated the number of initial applications treated by the EEAS. 
 
 
 
Requests sent to the Commission 
Requests received directly 
and assigned to the EEAS 
by the EEAS 
Q1 - 2011 
25 

Q2 - 2011 
78 
10 
Q3 - 2011 
27 

Q4 - 2011 
30 

Total 2011 
160 
21 
 
181 
of which 112 requests (61,87%) came from the academic sector 
Q1 - 2012 
20 
22 
Q2 - 2012 
35 
29 
Q3 - 2012 
15 
33 
Q4 - 2012 
 36 
19 
Total 2012 
106 103 
 
209 
of which 96 requests (45,93%) came from the academic sector 
Grand Total 
266 
124 
 
389 
of which 208 requests (53,47%) came from the academic sector 
 
A positive reply and full access to the documents requested was given to 71,72% of the 
initial applications (279 requests). 
 
For 8 requests, additional information was asked from the requestor, yet no answer was 
received. 
Finally, no documents matching the request were found in 0,77% of the cases (3 
requests). 
 
12,08% of the cases (47 requests) were subject to a full refusal and partial access was 
given to 6,43% of the initial applications (25 requests). 
 

The grounds for, partial or total, refusal most frequently evoked were 4: 
ƒ  The protection of the public interest as regards public security (Art. 4.1.(a)  first 
indent) for 4.17% of the cases (3 requests); 
ƒ  The protection of the public interest as regards defence and military matters (Art. 
4.1.(a)  second indent) for 1,39% of the cases (1 request); 
ƒ  The protection of the public interest as regards international relations (Art. 4.1.(a)  
third indent) for 87,50% of the cases (63 requests); 
ƒ  The protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual (Art. 4.1.(b)) for 16,67% 
of the cases (12 requests); 
ƒ  The institution’s decision-making process where the decision has not yet been taken 
(Art. 4.3.) for 20,83% of the cases (15 requests). 
 
It is to be noted that the EEAS has provided the services of the European Commission 
with the elements for replying to initial applications addressed to the Commission, but 
has not replied on its behalf for what concerns the totally or partially negative replies, 
thereby respecting the processing flow set up in the Regulation and giving maximum 
support to the Commission service concerned. However, in order to speed up the 
answering process, when the document requested could be made public, it was sent 
directly by the EEAS to the requestor. 
 
 
E. Cooperation with other Institutions for access to documents 
 
The EEAS has been consulted regularly (64 times in 2012) by the transparency service of 
the General Secretariat of the Council, mainly on documents that were produced under 
the responsibility of services that were transferred from the General Secretariat of the 
Council to the EEAS when the EEAS has been set up. 
 
There were also a few occurrences when the EEAS consulted the General Secretariat of 
the Council or specific DGs of the Commission, which had produced documents held by 
the EEAS. 
 
 
F. Consultation of third parties 
 
Third parties were consulted for several requests for access to documents, in particular in 
two types of cases: 
ƒ  Consultation of third States’ administrations when the requests concern a jointly 
produced document, such as joint minutes of meetings or correspondence between the 
EEAS and a particular third State. 
ƒ  Consultation of individuals whose personal data were subject to a request for access 
to documents. This consultation was made in the framework of Regulation 45/2001 of 
the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection 
of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community 
institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data 5. When the data 
subject did not agree to the release of his/her personal data, access to the document or 
part of the document requested was refused pursuant to art. 4.1.(b) of the Regulation. 
 
                                                 
4  
The percentages given are that of the cases for which the document(s) was/were partially or totally 
refused, i.e. a total of 72 cases in 2011 and 2012. 
5  
OJ L8, 12/1/2001, p. 1. 

 
G. Confirmatory applications for access to documents 
 
The Chief Operating Officer of the EEAS has examined one confirmatory request in 2011 
and no such request in 2012, for which he has confirmed the decision to refuse access to 
the documents concerned in virtue of Art. 4.2.(2) third indent, protection of the public 
interest as regards international relations. 
 
 
H. Further recourse concerning access to documents requests 
 
There was no occurrence neither of a court proceeding not of a complaint to the 
Ombudsman regarding the implementation of the Regulation against the EEAS in 2011 
and 2012. 
 
 
 
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