Discussion on E171

The request was partially successful.

Dear Health and Food Safety,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I would like to request a list of all lobby meetings held by DG Sante, since 17 April 2019, where the proposed ban on food additive E171 by the French Government was discussed. The list should include the names of the individuals and organisations attending; the date; and any agendas / minutes / notes produced. I would additionally like to receive any third party position papers, emails, or other correspondence which relates to discussions around the French Government's ban on E171.

This request should include all meetings of SCOPAFF.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Vicky Cann
CEO
Rue d’Edimbourg 26
Bruxelles 1050

Health and Food Safety

1 Attachment

Dear Madam,

 

Thank you for your email dated 22 July 2019. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 24
July 2019 under reference number GestDem 2019/4312.

 

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 14
August 2019. 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 third-party 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.

 

Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the European Commission. For further information
on your rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.

 

We understand that the third party running that website usually publishes
the content of applicants’ correspondence with the European Commission on
that website. This includes the personal data that you may have
communicated to the European Commission (e.g. your private postal
address).

 

Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.

 

If you do not wish your correspondence with the European Commission to be
published on the AsktheEU.org website, you can provide us with an
alternative, private e-mail address for further correspondence. In that
case, the European Commission will send all future electronic
correspondence addressed to you only to that private address.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

[1]cid:image001.gif@01D3FF48.374A49E0
European Commission
Health and Food Safety

 

References

Visible links

Health and Food Safety

2 Attachments

By e-mail only

 

For the attention of Ms V. Cann

 

Dear Ms Cann,

 

Please find herewith a letter from Mr B. Gautrais, Head of Unit,
concerning the above-mentioned request.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Unit E2 / Food additives

European Commission

DG Health and Food Safety

SANTE E2 – Food processing technologies and novel foods

 

B 232 04/43

 

The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any
circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European
Commission. This message may contain personal and other confidential data
that are entrusted to the recipients specified in the header of the
message.

 

Health and Food Safety

27 Attachments

For the attention of Ms Vicky Cann
 
Dear Ms Cann,
 
Please find attached a copy of the letter from Ms Anne Bucher,
Director-General, and the annexes regarding the above mentioned request.
 
Please note that the annexes are sent only by email and the original copy
of the letter will follow by registered mail.
 
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Unit E2 / Food additives
European Commission
DG SANTE
Unit E2: Food Processing Technologies and Novel Foods
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any
circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European
Commission.
 
 
 
 

Dear Health and Food Safety,

Thank you very much for the reply to 2019/4312.

Document 16 mentioned letters that had also been sent on 26 October 2018 and 1 February 2019; would it be possible to also receive those?

Additionally, document 18 referred to a telephone conversation in the previous week. Are there any notes relating to that call?

Can you confirm that no further meetings have been held on the matter of E171, other than those covered by the 27 documents?

Finally, I will separately contact you about document 23.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Health and Food Safety

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Cann,

 

Thank you for your e-mail dated 11 September 2019. We hereby acknowledge
receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered
on 12 September 2019 under the above mentioned reference number.

 

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 03
October 2019. 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 third-party 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.

 

Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the European Commission. For further information
on your rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.

 

We understand that the third party running that website usually publishes
the content of applicants’ correspondence with the European Commission on
that website. This includes the personal data that you may have
communicated to the European Commission (e.g. your private postal
address).

 

Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.

 

If you do not wish your correspondence with the European Commission to be
published on the AsktheEU.org website, you can provide us with an
alternative, private e-mail address for further correspondence. In that
case, the European Commission will send all future electronic
correspondence addressed to you only to that private address.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

[1]cid:image001.gif@01D3FF48.374A49E0
European Commission
Health and Food Safety

 

 

References

Visible links

Dear Health and Food Safety,

Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.

I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Discussion on E171' 2019/ 4312, specifically to the Commission’s response dated 4 September 2019. Specifically, I would like you to review the decision not to release document 23 which originated from the US Mission to the EU.

The decision on E171 is of great public interest as it involves a chemical used in many day-to-day food products. It is in the public interest to know the details of how all third parties are seeking to influence that decision-making.

Additionally, this issue is about one EU member state deciding that it wishes to protect its consumers by introducing a certain product ban. Individual governments should be able to take such decisions if it wishes. It is therefore in the public interest to know how and why a non-EU member state is lobbying the Commission on a matter of member state policy-making.

Furthermore, the European Court of Justice has stated on multiple occasions that there is an obligation, upon refusing access to EU documents, to provide explanations as to how disclosure would specifically and actually undermine an interest protected by Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001. The Commission has not done this in this case.

The Court also says that the risk must be “reasonably foreseeable and not purely hypothetical” meaning that the Commission should demonstrate where the actual risk lies in disclosure. Again, this has also not been satisfied.

I look forward to receiving document 23.

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/disc...

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

ve_sg.accessdoc (SG), Health and Food Safety

[1]Ares(2019)5850362 - FW: Internal review of access to documents request
- Discussion on E171 - Confirmatory Application

Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Madam,

Thank you for your email dated 18/09/2019 by which you request, pursuant
to Regulation No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,
Council and Commission documents, a review of the position taken by DG
SANTE in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2019/4312.

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents which was registered on 19/09/2019 (Ares(2019)5850128).

Your application will be handled within 15 working days (10/10/2019). In
case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due
course.

Please be informed that the answer to your confirmatory application is a
formal Commission decision that will be notified to you by express
delivery. Thank you for providing your contact phone number, so that the
external delivery service can contact you in case of absence.

Please note that the Commission will not use your phone number for any
other purpose than for informing the delivery service, and that it will
delete it immediately thereafter.

Yours faithfully,

Access to documents team (RC)
SG.C.1
Transparency
Berl. 07/251

-----Original Message-----
From: Vicky Cann <[FOI #7154 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2019 5:47 PM
To: SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS <[DG SANTE request email]>
Subject: Internal review of access to documents request - Discussion on
E171

Dear Health and Food Safety,

Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.

I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my
access to documents request 'Discussion on E171' 2019/ 4312, specifically
to the Commission’s response dated 4 September 2019. Specifically, I would
like you to review the decision not to release document 23 which
originated from the US Mission to the EU.

The decision on E171 is of great public interest as it involves a chemical
used in many day-to-day food products. It is in the public interest to
know the details of how all third parties are seeking to influence that
decision-making.

Additionally, this issue is about one EU member state deciding that it
wishes to protect its consumers by introducing a certain product ban.
Individual governments should be able to take such decisions if it wishes.
It is therefore in the public interest to know how and why a non-EU member
state is lobbying the Commission on a matter of member state
policy-making. 

Furthermore, the European Court of Justice has stated on multiple
occasions that there is an obligation, upon refusing access to EU
documents, to provide explanations as to how disclosure would specifically
and actually undermine an interest protected by Article 4 of Regulation
1049/2001. The Commission has not done this in this case.

The Court also says that the risk must be “reasonably foreseeable and not
purely hypothetical” meaning that the Commission should demonstrate where
the actual risk lies in disclosure. Again, this has also not been
satisfied.

I look forward to receiving document 23.

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the
Internet at this address:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url...

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #7154 email]

This message and all replies from Health and Food Safety will be published
on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page
for EU public officials at
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url...

-------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Visible links
1. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...

hide quoted sections

Health and Food Safety

4 Attachments

For the attention of Ms Vicky Cann
 
Dear Ms Cann,
 
Please find attached a copy of the letter from Ms Anne Bucher,
Director-General, and the annexes regarding the above mentioned request.
 
Please note that the annexes are sent only by email and the original copy
of the letter will follow by registered mail.
 
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Unit E2 / Food additives
European Commission
DG SANTE
Unit E2: Food Processing Technologies and Novel Foods
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any
circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European
Commission.
 
 
 
 

ve_sg.accessdoc (SG), Health and Food Safety

1 Attachment

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Ares(2019)6279587 - Your confirmatory application for access to
documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – GESTDEM 2019/4312

Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Ms Cann,

 

I refer to your email of 19 September 2019, registered on 19 September
2019, by which you submit a confirmatory application in accordance with
Article 8(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents ("Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001"), registered under reference number GESTDEM 2019/4312.

 

Your confirmatory applications are currently being handled. Unfortunately,
we have not yet been able to gather all the elements needed to carry out a
full analysis of your requests and to take a final decision. Therefore, we
are not in a position to reply to your confirmatory requests within the
prescribed time limit which expires on 10 October 2019.

 

Consequently, we have to extend this period by another 15 working days in
accordance with Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. The new
deadline expires on 31 October  2019.

 

However, I can assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide you with
a final reply within the next 15 working days.

 

I regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

María OLIVÁN AVILÉS
Head of Unit

[6]cid:image001.gif@01D13362.41D673C0

European Commission

Secretariat General

Unit C.1 (Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents)

 

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D57F80.06610260
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...

ve_sg.accessdoc (SG), Health and Food Safety

1 Attachment

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Ares(2019)6723799 - Your confirmatory application for access to
documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – GESTDEM 2019/4312

Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Ms Cann,

I refer to your email of 19 September 2019, registered on the same day, by
which you submit a confirmatory application in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents[6]^[1] (‘Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001’).

I also refer to our holding reply of  10 October 2019, by which the time
limit for replying to your confirmatory application was extended by 15
working days, pursuant to Article 8(2) of the Regulation. This extended
time limit expires on 31 October 2019.

 

I regret to have to inform you that we will not be able to respond within
the extended time-limit, as we have not yet finalised internal and
external consultations and have not yet been able to gather all the
elements needed to carry out a full analysis of your request and to take a
final decision.

 

I can assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide you with a final
reply as soon as possible. I regret this additional delay and sincerely
apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

María OLIVÁN AVILÉS
Head of Unit

[7]cid:image001.gif@01D13362.41D673C0

European Commission

Secretariat General

Unit C.1 (Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents)

 

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D58F10.6EFD7250
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...
6. file:///tmp/foiextract20191030-10880-11pe89u#_ftn1

Dear Health and Food Safety,

Please can you update me on the status of this request? It is a while since I heard from you.

Thanks and yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Health and Food Safety

5 Attachments

Dear Ms Cann,

This access to documents request is closed.
The final reply was sent to you on the 2 October 2019 (please see email attached).

Please let us know if you have not received the signed paper letter sent to you by snail mail so we try to find out where it may be.

Kind regards,

SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

European Commission
Health and Food Safety

-----Original Message-----
From: Vicky Cann <[FOI #7154 email]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2019 1:12 PM
To: SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS <[DG SANTE request email]>
Subject: Re: Your application for access to documents - Ref GESTDEM 2019/5260

Dear Health and Food Safety,

Please can you update me on the status of this request? It is a while since I heard from you.

Thanks and yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

-----Original Message-----

For the attention of Ms Vicky Cann
 
Dear Ms Cann,
 
Please find attached a copy of the letter from Ms Anne Bucher, Director-General, and the annexes regarding the above mentioned request.
 
Please note that the annexes are sent only by email and the original copy of the letter will follow by registered mail.
 
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Unit E2 / Food additives
European Commission
DG SANTE
Unit E2: Food Processing Technologies and Novel Foods
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European Commission.
 
 
 
 

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #7154 email]

This message and all replies from Health and Food Safety will be published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections

Dear Health and Food Safety,

Thank you for the speedy reply. I have the documents relating to 2019/5260.

But is there not also a reply due on the confirmatory appliacation relating to 2019/4312 regarding the non-release of document 23? The last deadline mentioned for that was 31 October.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Health and Food Safety

2 Attachments

Dear Madam,

 

Please find attached an advance copy of the confirmatory decision taken on
your request for access to documents registered under Gestdem number
2019/4312, adopted on 26/11/2019 in the above-mentioned case.

 

Please note that the Secretariat-General of the European Commission will
proceed with the formal notification of the decision in the coming days.

 

This advance copy is solely sent for your information and is not the
formal notification of the confirmatory decision.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (LC)

 

[1]cid:image001.png@01D58029.12E6FCC0

European Commission

Secretariat-General

SG C.1 – Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents

[2][email address]

 

 

 

References

Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]