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Background Paper - A Digital Trade Initiative in the WTO

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Dear Directorate General for Trade,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain information related to the background paper entitled “A Digital Trade Initiative in the WTO”, including:

- the original background paper as sent to the Council;
- all drafts and documents related to the background paper;
- the draft as well as actual agenda and minutes from internal and external meetings where the background paper was discussed;
- notes from DG Trade and others EU Commission’s DGs on the background paper;
- the exchange of e-mails between the industry and/or industry associations and the Commission on the background paper;
- the exchange of e-mails between external experts and the Commission on the background paper;
- the exchange of e-mails between foreign state representatives and the Commission on the background paper;

Yours faithfully,

Access Now
20 Rue Belliard
1040 Brussels
Contact person: Estelle Masse

Dear Ms Masse,

 

Thank you for your email dated 10/05/2016.  We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered today
under reference number GestDem 2016/2682.

 

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
06/06/2016. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course. You have lodged your application via the
AsktheEU.org website. Please note that this is a private website which has
no link with any institution of the European Union. Therefore the European
Commission cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems
linked to the use of this system.

 

However, your application seems to be wide scope and it potentially
concerns a very large number of documents, which need to be assessed
individually. We will also need to contact related services and possibly
third parties. Such a workload cannot be carried out within the normal
time limits (15+15 working days) set out in Article 7 of Regulation
1049/2001. The Regulation provides for a possibility to confer with
applicants in order to find a fair solution when an application relates to
a very long document or concerns a very large number of documents (Article
6(3)).

 

Based on the above-mentioned provisions, we would kindly ask you to
specify the objective of your request and your specific interest in the
documents requested, and whether you could narrow down the scope of your
request and indicate a timeframe covered, so as to reduce it to a more
manageable amount of documents.

 

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

 

Best regards,

DG TRADE

 

 

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Dear DG Trade,

Thank you very much for your reply.

As requested and to facilitate the swift delivery of the requested documents, please find further information below.

The objective of our request is to access the background paper entitled “A Digital Trade Initiative in the WTO” prepared by DG Trade and any relevant communications and documents related to its preparation. This includes the following documents:

- the original background paper as sent to the Council;
- all drafts and documents related to the background paper;
- the draft as well as actual agenda and minutes from internal and external meetings where the background paper was discussed;
- notes from DG Trade and others EU Commission’s DGs on the background paper;
- the exchange of e-mails between the industry and/or industry associations and the Commission on the background paper;
- the exchange of e-mails between external experts and the Commission on the background paper;
- the exchange of e-mails between foreign state representatives and the Commission on the background paper;

The search for these documents can be narrowed down to the following timeframe: from 1st October 2015, until now.

Access to this document will help understand DG Trade approach on digital trade and have the potential to bring legitimacy and accountability to the drafting process. DG Trade have developed a new trade strategy to improve transparency in the negotiations of specific trade agreement such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. We expect this commitment to transparency will be applied to any trade negotiations, including the preparation of this background paper, as established in the Trade for All strategy.

Yours faithfully,
Access Now
20 Rue Belliard
1040 Brussels
Contact person: Estelle Masse

Thank you for your message. We are handling your request.

DG TRADE

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Dear Ms Masse,

 

With reference to your above mentioned request we would like to let you
know that we are still working on it, currently assessing the identified
documents.

 

Please accept our apologies for not having met our deadline for a reply
that expired on 6 June. We have now extended 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 27 June 2016.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

Best regards,

DG TRADE

 

 

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1 Attachment

Dear Ms Masse,

 

We refer to your request for access to documents, registered under GestDem
reference number 2016/2682.

 

Your applications is currently being handled. Consultations with other
services have taken more than expected. We will reply to you as soon as
possible.

 

We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience they may cause.

 

Best regards,

 

 

Access to Documents Team

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/trade/images/ec-logo...
European Commission
DG TRADE

 

 

 

 

From: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS
Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2016 5:12 PM
To: 'Access Now'
Cc: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Background Paper - A Digital
Trade Initiative in the WTO

 

Dear Ms Masse,

 

With reference to your above mentioned request we would like to let you
know that we are still working on it, currently assessing the identified
documents.

 

Please accept our apologies for not having met our deadline for a reply
that expired on 6 June. We have now extended 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 27 June 2016.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

 

Best regards,

DG TRADE

 

 

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5 Attachments

Dear Ms Masse,

 

Please find attached an advance copy of the reply to your request ref.
GestDem 2016/2682.

The original will be delivered to you by registered mail.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Katerina GOMBOS
Secretary
 
European Commission
DG for TRADE
Unit B1 - Services

CHAR 5/121

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229 85144
[email address]

 

We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Access Now please sign in and let everyone know.