EBF international consulting EDES

Jasper Roorda made this access to documents request to Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

The request was refused by Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations.

To whom it may concern,

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:

-all documents concerning the addition of IBF International Consulting to the Early Detection and Exclusion System database.
-all communication between the European Commission and IBF International Consulting related to the addition to the Early Detection and Exclusion System database.

Article 4 of REGULATION (EC) No 1049/2001 states that 'The institutions shall refuse access to a document where disclosure would undermine the protection of commercial interests... unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure." The public interest to know about IBF International Consulting's addition to the EDES database for 'grave professional misconduct' is especially high since IBF is the development consulting firm that has received the most EU funding for the period 2014-2020. In light of the protection of the EU budget, there is strong public interest to know how EU funding to a private firm that operates in geopolitically sensitive areas, is spent.

Yours faithfully,

Jasper Roorda

Address:
Follow the Money
Gedempt Hamerkanaal 145
1021 KP Amsterdam
The Netherlands

NEAR-ACCDOC@ec.europa.eu, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Dear Roorda,

Thank you for your e-mail of 3 June 2022. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on today under reference number GESTDEM 2022/3293.

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 June 2022. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

You have lodged your application via 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 Commission. For further information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.

We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may have communicated to the 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 that your correspondence with the Commission is published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address, and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply from, the Commission.

For information on how we process your personal data visit our page Privacy statement – access to documents.

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents Team

European Commission
NEAR Access to Documents
DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

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Dear Madam, Sir,

I write to you in relation to my application for access to documents, registered on 7 june 2022 with reference number GESTDEM 2022/3293. The time limit to reply expired on 28 june 2022. Therefore, I would like to kindly remind you that, by law, the Commission should normally have responded promptly by that date.

Yours sincerely,

Jasper Roorda

NEAR-ACCDOC@ec.europa.eu, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Roorda,

 

We refer to your request for access to documents, initially registered on
7 June 2022 under the above-mentioned reference number .

 

Your application is currently being handled. However, we will not be in a
position to complete the handling of your application within the time
limit of 15 working days, which expired on the 28 June.

 

An extended time limit is needed for the purpose of internal
consultations.

 

Therefore, we have to extend 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 19 July 2022.

 

We are confident that we will be able to provide you with a reply shortly.
Again, we apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may
cause and we thank you for your understanding.

 

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

[1]cid:image001.gif@01D4DF06.B8C47E70

 

European Commission
DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations
NEAR Access to Documents

[2][DG NEAR request email]

 

 

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NEAR-ACCDOC@ec.europa.eu, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Roorda,

 

Please find attached the reply to your request for access to documents,
registered under reference GestDem 2022/3293.

 

According to standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also
sent to you by registered post. Please note, however, that due to the
extraordinary health and security measures currently in force during to
the COVID-19 epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission
non-critical staff to telework, we are unfortunately not in a position to
follow this procedure until further notice.

 

We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm receipt of the present
e-mail by replying to [1][DG NEAR request email]

 

Thank you in advance.

 

Best regards,

 

European Commission

DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

NEAR Access to Documents

[2][DG NEAR request email]

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DG NEAR request email]
2. mailto:[DG NEAR request email]

Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

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 'EBF international consulting EDES'.

The argumentation by the DG for not granting me access to documents concerning IBF International Consulting's addition to EDES is that the public interest does not override the protection of personal data and commercial interests in this case.

In my initial request, I already argued that the public interest to know about IBF International Consulting's addition to the EDES database for 'grave professional misconduct' is especially high since IBF is the development consulting firm that has received the most EU funding for the period 2014-2020. In light of the protection of the EU budget, there is a strong public interest to know how EU funding to a private firm that operates in geopolitically sensitive areas, is spent.

Additionally, I would like to highlight that due to the democratic values which are valued highly by the European Commission, the public has not only the right to know how its tax money is spent, it has also the right to know what went wrong when its tax money was not spent correctly. I would assume that transparency of the EU budget is of the uttermost importance to the European Commission. Therefore, I do not understand how the public interest does not override the protection of personal data and commercial interests in this case.

Furthermore, I do not understand how disclosing concrete information about the events that lead to IBF's addition to EDES could damage its commercial interests even more. EDES already stated that IBF was added due to "grave professional misconduct". Moreover, since the number of firms on EDES is limited, this gives the impression that a firm must misbehave rather heavily to make it on the list. Therefore, I do not see why disclosing more detailed information about the firm's wrongdoings could damage its commercial interest even more than the initial publication on EDES itself has already done.

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

Yours faithfully,

Jasper Roorda

SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

1 Attachment

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email dated 16/08/2022 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
NEAR in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2022/3923.

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents which was registered on 16/08/2022 (Ares(2022)5765229).

Your application will be handled within 15 working days (06/09/2022). 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 (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency

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SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

1 Attachment

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

[5]Your confirmatory application for access to documents under Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001 - GESTDEM 2022/3293 - 1st holding letter -
Ares(2022)6157699  (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)

Dear Mr Roorda,

 

I refer to your email of 16/08/2022, registered on the same date, 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 (‘Regulation 1049/2001’).

 

Your confirmatory application is currently being handled. Unfortunately,
we 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. Therefore, we
are not in a position to reply to your confirmatory request within the
prescribed time limit expiring on 06/09/2022.

 

Consequently, we have to extend this period by another 15 working days in
accordance with Article 8(2) of Regulation 1049/2001. The new deadline
expires on 27/09/2022.

 

Your sincerely,

 

 

 

 

Mariusz Daca, Ph.D.
Deputy Head of Unit

European Commission

Secretariat General

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

 

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D8C1FD.8A3AB6E0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...

SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

1 Attachment

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

[5]Your confirmatory application for access to documents under Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001 - GESTDEM 2022/3293 - 2nd holding letter -
Ares(2022)6688537  (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)

Dear Mr Roorda,

 

I refer to your email of 16 August 2022, 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 ("Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001"), registered under reference number GESTDEM 2022/3293.

 

I also refer to our holding reply of 6 September 2022, by which the time
limit for replying to your confirmatory application was extended by 15
working days, pursuant to Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
This extended time limit expired yesterday, on 27 September 2022.

 

I regret to inform you that we have not yet finalized the necessary
internal consultations and, as a result, we were not able provide you the
final reply within the extended time-limit. I can assure you that we are
doing our utmost to provide it to you as soon as possible.

 

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

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

Mariusz Daca, Ph.D.
Deputy Head of Unit

European Commission

Secretariat General

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

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D8D356.940FC7E0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...

SG-GREFFE-CERTIFICATION@ec.europa.eu, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

2 Attachments

 

Dear Mr Jasper Roorda,

 

Please find attached the electronic version of Commission Decision C(2022)
8136 as adopted by the European Commission on 8.11.2022.

 

The formal notification of the decision under Article 297 TFEU is being
made only in electronic form.

 

Could you please confirm receipt of the attached document by return
e-mail?

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

 

 

MARTIN GALAN MARIA SERENA

[1]cid:image001.gif@01D88728.8C45B5D0

Secrétariat général de la Commission

SG B2 - Procédures écrites, habilitation, délégation

BERL 5/155
'   +32-2-299.59.48

 

 

References

Visible links

SG-GREFFE-CERTIFICATION@ec.europa.eu, Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

1 Attachment

 

 

Dear Ms / Dear Mr,

It is very important for us.

Please, could you please acknowledge the receipt of the document enclosed
in the message addressed to you ?

 

MARTIN GALAN MARIA SERENA

[1]cid:image001.gif@01D88728.8C45B5D0

Secrétariat général de la Commission

SG B2 - Procédures écrites, habilitation, délégation

BERL 5/155
'   +32-2-299.59.48

 

From: SG GREFFE CERTIFICATION
Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2022 1:38 PM
To: '[FOI #11401 email]'
<[FOI #11401 email]>
Cc: WADHWANIA Nadia (SG) <[email address]>
Subject: C (2022) 8136 final addressed to Follow the Money - Jasper Roorda

 

 

Dear Mr Jasper Roorda,

 

Please find attached the electronic version of Commission Decision C(2022)
8136 as adopted by the European Commission on 8.11.2022.

 

The formal notification of the decision under Article 297 TFEU is being
made only in electronic form.

 

Could you please confirm receipt of the attached document by return
e-mail?

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

 

 

MARTIN GALAN MARIA SERENA

[2]cid:image001.gif@01D88728.8C45B5D0

Secrétariat général de la Commission

SG B2 - Procédures écrites, habilitation, délégation

BERL 5/155
'   +32-2-299.59.48

 

 

References

Visible links

Dear [email address],

I hereby confirm that I received your answer.

Yours sincerely,

Jasper Roorda