Costs of cleaning the Europa Building

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Council of the European Union should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Council of the EU,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information on the cleaning of the Europa Building:

1. How many glass panels (i.e. windows – internal and external -- that need cleaning regularly) are there in the building?

2. If you were to take out all of the glass panels and put them side-by-side, how big would the combined total be – in square feet (or metres)?

3. What is the window cleaning company currently employed that carries out the cleaning?

4. What size is the physical building (height and total floor space in square feet or metres)?

5. How much does it cost to clean all of the glass panels the building has? A preferable answer would be an annual cost, but if the cleaning isn’t every year, then how much every effort costs would be appreciated.

6. How often are the glass panels cleaned, and on average, how long does this take and how many cleaners are needed?

7. Are there any special hazards the cleaners need to be aware of when cleaning the glass panels of the building? Or specific instructions that may be of interest that are unique to it? (For example, are there specific cleaning agents that need to be used, or others that cannot be used, or things that must be done for health and safety reasons.)

8. How much is spent on cleaning the building altogether in a given year? (This does not have to be solely about cleaning glass panels or windows).

9. Who pays for the cleaning? (i.e. taxpayer or private expenses)

Yours faithfully,

Neil Wright

Postmaster Consilium, Council of the European Union

Your message has been received by the Transparency and Access to Documents Unit of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. All requests for access to documents are treated on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. The General Secretariat will reply to your request within 15 working days upon registration of your request. Requests received before 5 PM on a working day are registered on the same day. Requests received after 5 PM are registered on the first following working day.

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TRANSPARENCY Access to documents (COMM), Council of the European Union

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Wright,

 

Thank you for your message dated 22.01.2019. The Transparency team has
forwarded it to the competent service of the General Secretariat at:

 

Communication and Information

COMM.2 Information and Outreach Directorate

Public Information Service 
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 175 
1048 Bruxelles/Brussel 
Belgique/België

 

That service will inform you of the follow-up of your message as soon as
possible.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Transparency

 

[1]cid:image001.jpg@01CFA5C5.5240EA00

 

Council of the European Union

General Secretariat

Directorate-General Communication and Information - COMM

Directorate Information and Outreach

Information Services Unit

 

Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat, 175 - B-1048 Bruxelles/Brussel - Belgique/België

[2]www.consilium.europa.eu  |  [3][email address]

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed are solely those of the writer and may not
be regarded as stating an official position of the Council of the EU

 

 

 

show quoted sections

Council of the European Union

Dear Mr. Wright,

Thank you for your message to the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU.

Please find below the links to the documents containing most of the information you ask for.

The call for tenders for all cleaning services for all the buildings occupied by the General-Secretariat of the Council (GSC) is ongoing. The deadline for submission of tenders was 28/08/2018, and the award decision is not taken yet. The full set of tendering documents is available here:

https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/cft/cft....

The information on the surfaces to be cleaned are indicated in "Annexe IX: Offre financière (document à consulter)" on sheet "Poste 3".

On the external façade of the Europa Building (cleaned 4 times a year) we have:

- 3 831 m2 of glass panels (old wooden frames),
- 1 739 m2 of windows (wooden frames) in Residence Palace,
- 594 m2 of windows (metal frames) at the entrances.
The internal windows (cleaned twice a year, with exception of two places) amount to 12 970 m2.

The floor surface of the Europa Building is of 66 700 m2.

The cleaning of all three of the Councils the buildings was carried out until now by IRIS Cleaning Services SA/NV, avenue de Bâle 5, 1140 Bruxelles, Belgique (please see the link to the contract award notice:

https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE....

This contract covers general cleaning as well as window cleaning. The maximum value of the contract was set to 21 122 178 EUR covering 4 years, the volumes of orders are published every year. As an example and indication, in 2017 the GSC has spent 5.303.596,97 € on all cleaning services for all of its buildings (please check):

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/35....

It is not possible to break down the specific figure for window cleaning as to do so would compromise the commercial interest of specific economic operators, whose interests are protected by Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001.
The figures for 2018 will be available on 30 June 2019.

All these expenses are financed from the general budget of the EU.

Yours sincerely,

The Public Information Service
General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union
Tel: +32 (0) 2 281 56 50
E-mail: www.consilium.europa.eu/infopublic

Disclaimer: The information provided has been prepared by the Public Information Service of the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU and may not be regarded as constituting an official position of the Council.
------------------------

Initial question:

From: Neil Wright [FOI #6339 email]
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 11:40 AM
To: TRANSPARENCY Access to documents (COMM)
Subject: access to documents request - Costs of cleaning the Europa Building

Dear Council of the EU,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information on the cleaning of the Europa Building:

1. How many glass panels (i.e. windows – internal and external -- that need cleaning regularly) are there in the building?

2. If you were to take out all of the glass panels and put them side-by-side, how big would the combined total be – in square feet (or metres)?

3. What is the window cleaning company currently employed that carries out the cleaning?

4. What size is the physical building (height and total floor space in square feet or metres)?

5. How much does it cost to clean all of the glass panels the building has? A preferable answer would be an annual cost, but if the cleaning isn’t every year, then how much every effort costs would be appreciated.

6. How often are the glass panels cleaned, and on average, how long does this take and how many cleaners are needed?

7. Are there any special hazards the cleaners need to be aware of when cleaning the glass panels of the building? Or specific instructions that may be of interest that are unique to it? (For example, are there specific cleaning agents that need to be used, or others that cannot be used, or things that must be done for health and safety reasons.)

8. How much is spent on cleaning the building altogether in a given year? (This does not have to be solely about cleaning glass panels or windows).

9. Who pays for the cleaning? (i.e. taxpayer or private expenses)

Yours faithfully,

Neil Wright

For future correspondence please use the following link: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/contacts/... #6339 email]

Dear Council of the EU,

Could you please tell me:

How many windows there are in the Europa building -- this includes the residential building. Could you give the number of external windows, the number of internal windows, and the combined amount of windows?

Could you also tell me how tall the Europa building is in metres, from the ground to the highest point?

Yours faithfully,
Neil Wright

Postmaster Consilium, Council of the European Union

Your message has been received by the Transparency and Access to Documents Unit of the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. All requests for access to documents are treated on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. The General Secretariat will reply to your request within 15 working days upon registration of your request. Requests received before 5 PM on a working day are registered on the same day. Requests received after 5 PM are registered on the first following working day.

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To see the text of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, please click here:
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L'unité "Transparence et accès aux documents" du Secrétariat général du Conseil de l'Union européenne a bien reçu votre message. Toutes les demandes d'accès à des documents sont traitées conformément au règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l'accès du public aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission. Le Secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours ouvrables à compter de l'enregistrement de celle-ci. Les demandes reçues les jours ouvrables avant 17 heures sont enregistrées le jour même. Les demandes reçues après 17 heures sont enregistrées le premier jour ouvrable suivant.

***
S'il vous plaît ne répondez pas à ce message, car il a été envoyé d'une boîte aux lettres sans surveillance.
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Pour consulter le texte du règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001, cliquez ici:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU...

Si le lien ne s'ouvre pas lorsque vous cliquez dessus, veuillez copier-coller l'adresse dans votre navigateur.

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Ihre Nachricht ist bei der Dienststelle "Transparenz und Zugang zu Dokumenten" des General-sekretariats des Rates der Europäischen Union eingegangen. Alle Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden gemäß der Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und der Kommission bearbeitet. Das Generalsekretariat wird Ihnen binnen fünfzehn Arbeitstagen nach Registrierung Ihres Antrags eine Antwort übermitteln. Anträge, die an einem Arbeitstag vor 17.00 Uhr eingehen, werden noch am selben Tages registriert. Nach 17.00 Uhr eingehende Anträge werden am erstfolgenden Arbeitstag registriert.

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Den Text der Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 finden Sie hier:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU...

Wenn sich der Link beim Anklicken nicht öffnet, kopieren Sie den bitte mit "copy/paste" in Ihren Browser.

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