All Commission contacts with Clifford Chance

The request was partially successful.

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting all documents, including notes of minutes, emails and other correspondence, relating to contacts between the European Commission and law firm Clifford Chance, in the last 5 years.

More specifically, this should cover all contacts between staff of all Commission Directorate Generals and any staff or representatives of Clifford Chance, between January 2008 and February 2013.

Yours faithfully,

Rachel Tansey

Secretariat General of the European Commission

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Dear Ms Tansey,

 

Thank you for your e-mail of yesterday.

However, your request for access to documents is too vague: it isn't
possible to make a research for all Commission's staff.

That's why I propose you to name the Directorates-General that interest
you in your request.

Yours sincerely,

 

Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency

 

 

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Dear Secretariat General (SG),

In response to your request for clarification of my request, I will narrow the request to cover only all contacts between Secretariat General staff and staff of Clifford Chance, between January 2008 and February 2013.

Yours faithfully,

Rachel Tansey

Secretariat General of the European Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Tansey,

 

We refer to your email of 6 February 2013, in which you submit a request
for access to all documents, including notes of minutes, emails ans other
correspondence, relating to contacts  between staff of the
Secretariat-General and staff of law firm Clifford Chance, between January
2008 and February 2013.

This is a very broadly formulated request, which would require extensive
searches on different locations. It is not really feasable to retrieve
documents on these criteria. In particular, for a significant part of the
period covered by your request, there is no central electronic archiving
of correspondence. Therefore, searches in paper files would be necessary,
which would be very labour-intensive and time consuming.

Furthermore, correspondence with law firms may cover very different
subjects and some of it is likely to be confidentiual in nature.

Consequently, we are unable to handle your request in its present form. We
would kindly ask you to make a more targeted request.

Yours sincerely,   

 

Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency

 

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Dear Secretariat General (SG),

In accordance with your request for a more targeted access to documents request - due to the labour-intensive and time consuming nature of dealing with my request as previously formulated - I will narrow the time period and scope of my request as follows.

I will reduce the time span of my request to one year, from February 2012 to February 2013. I trust that this will address the issue of having no central electronic archiving of correspondence, for a significant part of the period covered by my original request (Jan 2008-Feb 2013).

Furthermore, since Clifford Chance is a large, multinational law firm, with branches all over the world, I will reduce the scope of my request to cover only correspondence between staff of DG SG and three particular branches of Clifford Chance: the Brussels, Paris and London offices of Clifford Chance.

Yours faithfully,

Rachel Tansey

Secretariat General of the European Commission

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Dear Mrs Tansey,

 

Thank you for your e-mail dated 08/02/2013 registered on 11/02/2013. I
hereby acknowledge receipt of your request for access to documents (ref.:
gestdem 2013-0574).

 

In accordance with Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, you will receive a
response to your request within 15 working days (04/03/2013).

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency

 

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Secretariat General of the European Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Tansey,

We refer to your e-mail dated 12/2/2013 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on requesting all documents, including
notes of minutes, emails and other correspondence, relating to contacts
between staff DG EEAS and staff of law firm Clifford Chance, between
January 2008 and February 2013.

We regret to inform you that no documents were found that would correspond
to the description given in your application. We are, therefore, unable to
handle your application.

We advise you to fill a form in the EEAS website or to write directly to
them             ([1]http://www.eeas.europa.eu/documents/inde...) for
further inquiries.

Yours faithfully,

KRISTINA KALKAS
Legal Officer

[2]cid:image002.jpg@01CE0DF0.73F8A430
European Commission
Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI)

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.eeas.europa.eu/documents/inde...

Secretariat General of the European Commission

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Tansey,
Kindly find the answer to your application concerning your request for
access to documents pursuant to Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001 regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents
(gestdem 2013-0574).
Yours sincerely,
 
 
Paul SIMON
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency
European Commission
 

Dear Secretariat General (SG),

I would like to reiterate, as per my original request of 4 February, that I seek all documents, including notes of minutes, emails and other correspondence, relating to contacts between staff of the Commission (clarified on 6 February to be DG Secretariat General staff) and staff of law firm Clifford Chance, (clarified on 8 February to be the Brussels, Paris and London offices of Clifford Chance, between February 2012 to February 2013).

This does therefore include documents relating to the handling of a complaint made by one of Clifford Chance London's clients, as per the email you refer to in your response of 4 March.

In short, yes, I do seek to obtain such a document.

Yours faithfully,

Rachel Tansey

Secretariat General of the European Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Tansey,

 

Thank you for your precision: we take note that you are interested by this
document.

We will consult the third party concerned, as explained in our letter
dated 04/03/2013.

You will receive an answer within 15 working days (25/03/2013).

Yours sincerely,

 

Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency

 

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Secretariat General of the European Commission

3 Attachments

Dear Ms Tansey,
Kindly find the answer to your application concerning your request for
access to documents pursuant to Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001 regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents
(gestdem 2013-0574).
                
Yours sincerely,
 
 
Paul SIMON
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency
European Commission