Documents regarding endocrine disrupters

The request was partially successful.

Dear Health and Consumers (SANCO),

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:

1– on the topic of the establishment of a working group on Endocrine Active Substances (or: endocrine disrupters) at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), all correspondence (including emails), the list of meetings with detailed minutes and any other reports of such meetings between DG SANCO’s officials and representatives of the following organisations:
-CEFIC
-PlasticsEurope
-European Crop Protection Association (ECPA)
-European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates (ECPI)
-Bayer
-BASF
-Dow
-DuPont
-Syngenta
-Cosmetics Europe
-European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC)

(between April 2011 and September 2012);

2– all correspondence (including emails) between DG SANCO and EFSA on the establishment of a working group on Endocrine Active Substances (or: endocrine disrupters) (between March and September 2012).

3– on the topic of endocrine disrupters (also spelled: disruptors), all correspondence (including emails), the list of meetings with detailed minutes and any other reports of such meetings between DG SANCO’s officials and representatives of the following organisations:
-CEFIC
-PlasticsEurope
-European Crop Protection Association (ECPA)
-European Council for Plasticisers and Intermediates (ECPI)
-Bayer
-BASF
-Dow
-DuPont
-Syngenta
-L’Oréal
-Cosmetics Europe
-European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC)
-American Chemistry Council
-BusinessEurope
-American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU)
-USA Government
-UK Government
-German Government
-The German Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR)
-French Government

(between June 2011 and July 2013);

Should my request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions referring to specific exemptions in the regulation. Also I expect the partial release of documents, in case of partial exemption according to article 4.6.

Do not hesitate to get back to me should you need any further information which could facilitate your research.

Thank you for your assistance.

Yours faithfully,

Stéphane Horel

Health and Food Safety

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Horel,

 

On 11/07/2013, you sent to the European Commission (DG ENV, DG SANCO, DG
ENTR, Secretariat General) a total of 10 requests for access to documents.

For technical reasons, the Secretariat General needs to enter in contact
with you in order to be able to deal correctly with your different
requests.

May you let us a phone number where we could reach you at your best
convenience?

Thank you by advance.

Sincerely yours,

 

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

Health and Food Safety

2 Attachments

Madame,

 

Suite à votre entretien téléphonique de ce matin avec Monsieur Legris et à
la proposition que ce dernier vous a faite, j'ai l'honneur de vous
adresser en annexe un tableau récapitulatif des différentes demandes que
vous avez envoyées à la Commission européenne, ainsi que les références et
les échéances s'y rattachant.

Je vous en souhaite bonne réception.

Veuillez agréer, Madame, l'assurance de ma considération distinguée.

 

Paul SIMON
Commission européenne - Secrétariat général
Unité SG.B.5, Transparence

Health and Food Safety

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Horel,

 

Please find enclosed the above-mentioned documents.

 

Best Regards,

 

Irene Vernacotola

 

Irene Vernacotola
DG SANCO – E3
Chemicals, contaminants and pesticides
F101 04/74
+32 2 29 60162

 

Health and Food Safety

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Prost,

 

Please find enclosed a letter dated 24/09/2013, signed by Mr Flueh, ref.
Ares(2013)3101740, in reply to your e-mails dated 26 August and
3 September 2013 on above mentioned subject.

 

Best regards,

 

 
[1]cid:image001.gif@01CE892C.EEB8AE10
European Commission
DG SANCO
Unit E3

 

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links

Health and Food Safety

2 Attachments

Dear Mrs Horel,

 

Please find enclosed a letter dated 24/09/2013, signed by Mr Flueh, ref.
Ares(2013)3101740, in reply to your e-mails dated 26 August and
3 September 2013 on above mentioned subject.

 

Best regards,

 

 
[1]cid:image001.gif@01CE892C.EEB8AE10
European Commission
DG SANCO
Unit E3

 

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links

Dear Health and Consumers (SANCO),
Dear Mr Flüh,

Thank you for your long-awaited response.

You write that your services have identified 28 documents. I noticed that your counting considers email and attachments to these emails separate documents. But if we consider one email and its attachment(s) as one single object, the counting goes down to an overall of 16 documents.

Moreover, I already obtained some of the documents you listed after releases from other access-to-documents requests to other DGs. More precisely, documents 1, 2, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28. The "large number of documents" is now down to 21.

However different our additions may be, I still think that Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 does not apply to 16 or 21 or even 28 documents. As you are probably know, I submitted the same access-to-document requests to other DGs. DG Entreprise released more than 40 documents in less than one month (and that was during the summer break). DG Environment will release much more than 28 documents on 30 September.

Furthermore, your refer to the Court of First Instance in the case Verein für Konsumenteninformation v Commission: "when a request relates to a very large number of documents and so imposes a volume of work which is likely to undermine the work of its services, the Commission retains the right to balance the interest in public access to documents with that of good administration". In this precise case, the "very large number of documents" consisted in more than 47.000 pages (Case T-2/03, [2005] ECR11-01121, para 128). I believe this number does not stand the comparision with the 28 (or 21, or 16) documents held by DG SANCO on endocrine disrupters. I sincerely doubt the work of DG SANCO's services could be irreparably undermined by handling my request.

All that being said, I believe it would be in everyone's benefit to avoid the impression that this is a case of unjustified delay. I am confident that the European ombudsman would be concerned that DG Entreprise promptly responded to a similar request and that DG Environment is about to do it, while you propose what I consider an unreasonable delay for a reasonable number of documents.

Therefore, I would like to ask you the release of all the documents (at the exception of 1, 2, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28, which I already have) within the time limit of 15 working days.

All third parties (ECPA, CEFIC, ECETOC, Bayer) have been previously consulted by DG Enterprise and DG Environment for the release of their correspondance. So that would probably make the process easier for you.

I apologize if my level English does not reflect the courtesy and humour I am fully capable of in French - my mother tongue.

Yours faithfully,

Stéphane Horel

Health and Food Safety

Dear Ms Horel

I refer to your e-mail below, dated 25/09/2013.

I understand that you are no longer requesting access to documents number 1, 2, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28.

For the rest of the documents, be assured that we will do our utmost to deliver them rapidly.

Please note that the workload concerning requests for access to documents and the resources available to deal with these, may vary from one DG to the other.

Best regards,

Michael FLÜH
Head of Unit

European Commission
DG SANCO
Unit E3, Chemicals, Contaminants and Pesticides

F101 04/066
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 299 2257
[email address]

_________________________________________________________________________________________

-----Original Message-----
From: Stéphane Horel [mailto:[FOI #650 email]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 3:37 PM
To: SANCO-E3-SECTEURPP
Subject: Re: your application for access to documents - Ref GestDem No 2013/3636, point 3

Dear Health and Consumers (SANCO),
Dear Mr Flüh,

Thank you for your long-awaited response.

You write that your services have identified 28 documents. I noticed that your counting considers email and attachments to these emails separate documents. But if we consider one email and its attachment(s) as one single object, the counting goes down to an overall of 16 documents.

Moreover, I already obtained some of the documents you listed after releases from other access-to-documents requests to other DGs. More precisely, documents 1, 2, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28. The "large number of documents" is now down to 21.

However different our additions may be, I still think that Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 does not apply to 16 or 21 or even 28 documents. As you are probably know, I submitted the same access-to-document requests to other DGs. DG Entreprise released more than 40 documents in less than one month (and that was during the summer break). DG Environment will release much more than 28 documents on 30 September.

Furthermore, your refer to the Court of First Instance in the case Verein für Konsumenteninformation v Commission: "when a request relates to a very large number of documents and so imposes a volume of work which is likely to undermine the work of its services, the Commission retains the right to balance the interest in public access to documents with that of good administration". In this precise case, the "very large number of documents" consisted in more than 47.000 pages (Case T-2/03, [2005] ECR11-01121, para 128). I believe this number does not stand the comparision with the 28 (or 21, or 16) documents held by DG SANCO on endocrine disrupters. I sincerely doubt the work of DG SANCO's services could be irreparably undermined by handling my request.

All that being said, I believe it would be in everyone's benefit to avoid the impression that this is a case of unjustified delay. I am confident that the European ombudsman would be concerned that DG Entreprise promptly responded to a similar request and that DG Environment is about to do it, while you propose what I consider an unreasonable delay for a reasonable number of documents.

Therefore, I would like to ask you the release of all the documents (at the exception of 1, 2, 22, 24, 25, 27 and 28, which I already have) within the time limit of 15 working days.

All third parties (ECPA, CEFIC, ECETOC, Bayer) have been previously consulted by DG Enterprise and DG Environment for the release of their correspondance. So that would probably make the process easier for you.

I apologize if my level English does not reflect the courtesy and humour I am fully capable of in French - my mother tongue.

Yours faithfully,

Stéphane Horel

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

Dear Mr Prost,

 

Please find enclosed a letter dated 24/09/2013, signed by Mr Flueh, ref.
Ares(2013)3101740, in reply to your e-mails dated 26 August and
3 September 2013 on above mentioned subject.

 

Best regards,

 

 
[1]cid:image001.gif@01CE892C.EEB8AE10
European Commission
DG SANCO
Unit E3

 

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links

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Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #650 email]

This message and all replies from Health and Consumers (SANCO) will be published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at http://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

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Dear Health and Consumers (SANCO),
Dear Mr Flüh,

Thank you for your message dated 27 September. I really appreciate you will do your "utmost" to deliver the documents rapidly.

Yours faithfully,

Stéphane Horel

Health and Food Safety

21 Attachments

Dear Ms Horel,

 

Please find attached the abovementioned document together with:

1)      Letter Ares(2013) 3101740

2)      18 documents

3)      Table with the list of the documents within the scope of this
request

Best Regards,

 

Irene Vernacotola

 

Irene Vernacotola
DG SANCO – E3
Chemicals, contaminants and pesticides
F101 04/74
+32 2 29 60162