Commissioner Vella's invitations to events and speaking engagements

The request was successful.

Dear DG Environment,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting a list of, or copies of, all invitations received to attend, or speak at, an event organised by a third party, as received by Commissioner Karmenu Vella since 1 November 2014.
Additionally, I would like to request a full list of all external speaking engagements made by Commissioner Vella since 1 November 2014. This list should include the date and venue of the event, the host(s) and organiser(s) of the event, and the topics discussed.

Yours faithfully,

Myriam Douo
On behalf of Friends of the Earth Europe
Mundo B Building
Rue D'Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels,
Belgium
[email address]

Environment

1 Attachment

Dear Madam,

 

Thank you for your e-mail dated 29/06/2016.  We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on
06/07/2016 under reference number GestDem 2016/3793.

 

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
28/07/2016. 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.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

DG ENVIRONMENT ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM

 
European Commission
Directorate-General for Environment
Unit E.4 – Compliance & Better Regulation

B-1160 Brussels/Belgium

 

 

show quoted sections

Environment

Dear Ms Douo,

 

I refer to your request for access to documents - based on Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and
Commission documents ('Regulation 1049/2001') - of 29 June 2016, which was
registered on 6 July 2016 under above-mentioned reference number. You ask
for access to: a list of, or copies of, all invitations received to
attend, or speak at, an event organised by a third party, as received by
Commissioner Karmenu Vella since 1 November 2014.

 

After a first search for documents, it appears that more than 1000
documents were received by the Commissioner Vella. Based on this first
estimate, it would appear that the treatment of your request would
constitute a disproportionate workload. Below calculation illustrates the
estimation of the workload linked to the handling of your request based on
an average estimation of 1040 documents, taking into account the human
resources (FTE- full time equivalent) necessary for the following steps in
the treatment of your initial request:

 

1.       Identification of the relevant documents covered by the request
(65 working days for 1040 documents).  For each document the following
operation is to be performed, corresponding to an average of ½ hour per
document:

o   identification and listing of the individual documents falling under
the temporal scope of the request;

o   extraction and printing;

o   in depth scan of the document's content;

o   Redaction of the information falling out of the scope of your request
and personal data.

2.       Double-checking of the final list of documents to be released: 3
working days,

3.       Preparation of the draft text of the reply: 3 working days,

4.       Consultation of the relevant services and cabinets regarding the
draft text – Final draft reply: 2 working days,

5.       Approval of the reply by the Director general and dispatch of the
reply: 2 working days.

In the light of the above, in order to prepare the reply to your request,
one full-time equivalent (FTE) would have to devote 75 full working days.
Please note that some time was already invested in the preliminary
assessment of your request and in the preparation of this proposal for a
fair solution. These come on top of the 75 working days referred to above.

 

Therefore, I would like to propose that, in line with Article 6(3) of
Regulation 1049/2001, you specify the reason why you are interested in
obtaining access to the documents, and which (types of) documents you are
interested in in particular.

 

If, on the contrary, you wish to maintain your wide-scope request and not
identify further what type(s) of invitations you are interested in, I
propose to reduce the temporal scope of your request (i.e. 20 months, from
1 November 2014 until 1st July 2016) to a shorter timeframe of three
months of your choice.

 

Such a narrowed-down scope would cover a more manageable number of
documents including the preparation of the redacted versions thereof.

 

This reply is sent by DG Environment as service attached to Commissioner
Vella ('DG de tutelle'). We would be grateful for a reply by Tuesday 2^nd
August 2016.

 

 Thank you in advance.

 

Yours sincerely,

ENV ACCESS DOCUMENTS Team

 

 

 

Environment

Dear Ms Douo,

 

In addition to the mail below, you can find the link of Commissioner Vella
agenda for more information.

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019...

 

Best regards,

ENV ACCESS DOCUMENTS Team

 

 

 

 

 

From: ENV ACCESS DOCUMENTS
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2016 3:46 PM
To: '[FOI #3082 email]'
Cc: '[email address]'; ENV ACCESS DOCUMENTS
Subject: Your application under regulation 1049/2001 - Gestdem 2016/3793
Importance: High

 

Dear Ms Douo,

 

I refer to your request for access to documents - based on Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and
Commission documents ('Regulation 1049/2001') - of 29 June 2016, which was
registered on 6 July 2016 under above-mentioned reference number. You ask
for access to: a list of, or copies of, all invitations received to
attend, or speak at, an event organised by a third party, as received by
Commissioner Karmenu Vella since 1 November 2014.

 

After a first search for documents, it appears that more than 1000
documents were received by the Commissioner Vella. Based on this first
estimate, it would appear that the treatment of your request would
constitute a disproportionate workload. Below calculation illustrates the
estimation of the workload linked to the handling of your request based on
an average estimation of 1040 documents, taking into account the human
resources (FTE- full time equivalent) necessary for the following steps in
the treatment of your initial request:

 

1.       Identification of the relevant documents covered by the request
(65 working days for 1040 documents).  For each document the following
operation is to be performed, corresponding to an average of ½ hour per
document:

o   identification and listing of the individual documents falling under
the temporal scope of the request;

o   extraction and printing;

o   in depth scan of the document's content;

o   Redaction of the information falling out of the scope of your request
and personal data.

2.       Double-checking of the final list of documents to be released: 3
working days,

3.       Preparation of the draft text of the reply: 3 working days,

4.       Consultation of the relevant services and cabinets regarding the
draft text – Final draft reply: 2 working days,

5.       Approval of the reply by the Director general and dispatch of the
reply: 2 working days.

In the light of the above, in order to prepare the reply to your request,
one full-time equivalent (FTE) would have to devote 75 full working days.
Please note that some time was already invested in the preliminary
assessment of your request and in the preparation of this proposal for a
fair solution. These come on top of the 75 working days referred to above.

 

Therefore, I would like to propose that, in line with Article 6(3) of
Regulation 1049/2001, you specify the reason why you are interested in
obtaining access to the documents, and which (types of) documents you are
interested in in particular.

 

If, on the contrary, you wish to maintain your wide-scope request and not
identify further what type(s) of invitations you are interested in, I
propose to reduce the temporal scope of your request (i.e. 20 months, from
1 November 2014 until 1st July 2016) to a shorter timeframe of three
months of your choice.

 

Such a narrowed-down scope would cover a more manageable number of
documents including the preparation of the redacted versions thereof.

 

This reply is sent by DG Environment as service attached to Commissioner
Vella ('DG de tutelle'). We would be grateful for a reply by Tuesday 2^nd
August 2016.

 

 Thank you in advance.

 

Yours sincerely,

ENV ACCESS DOCUMENTS Team

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. http://ec.europa.eu/commission/2014-2019...

Dear ENV ACCESS DOCUMANT team,

Thank you for your response.

The goal of my request being exactly to know which invitation Commissioner Vella received and which he accepted, I do not know which invitation he received and am therefore not able to narrow down my request in this sense.

I will therefore reduce the temporal scope of my request to three months, more specifically between April and June 2016 included.

I am looking forward to receiving these documents as soon as possible.

Best regards,
Myriam Douo

Environment

3 Attachments

Dear Mrs Douo,

 

Please find enclosed an advance copy of the DG ENV reply to your request
and the mentioned Excel table.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Robert KONRAD
Head of Unit

[1]cid:image001.gif@01CE6E9E.0BD9E300
European Commission
DG Environment
ENV ACCESS DOCUMENTS TEAM

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links