Exchanges on Pegasus
Alexander Fanta made this access to documents request to Informatics as part of a batch sent to 6 authorities
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear access to documents team,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents mentioned in a recent reply to parliament by the Commission (E-000713/2022). The documents in question concern a possible blacklisting of Israeli manufacturer NSO Group and the spyware Pegasus. The reply by Commissioner Breton mentions that the Commission "has raised the issue with the export control authorities of the Member States and with Israel, with a view to mitigating the risks associated with trade in these sensitive products."
I want to request all exchanges with Member States as well as with Israel on the issue. My request is also meant to cover all internal communication within the Commission (such as e-mails, legal analysis) related to said exchanges.
The applicant notes that he has filed an identical request with DG Trade, which was transferred to DG Grow (GESTDEM 2022/3316). DG Grow has informed me in a reply dating from July 20, 2022 that it holds no document corresponding to that description. I therefore hope to identify the DG that does indeed hold the document or documents in question.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
netzpolitik.org e.V.
Schönhauser Allee 6-7
10119 Berlin
Germany
Dear Mr. Fanta,
Thank you for your email of 20 July 2022. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 20 July 2022 under reference number GESTDEM 2022/4189.
Your requested was attributed to DG DIGIT.
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 11 August 2022.
However, in view of the fact that your application entails receiving input from various internal stakeholders and in view of this possibly requiring more time (due to the holiday period), we have extended the deadline to 31 August 2022.
We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our page Privacy statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
DIGIT ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
European Commission
Directorate-General for Informatics
Rue de la Loi 107
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Dear Mr. Fanta,
We refer to your email messages of 20 and 21 July 2022 in which you
make two requests for access to documents, registered on 20 July 2022
under GESTDEM 2022/4189, and on the 22 July 2022 under GESTDEM 2022/4230.
Your applications are currently being handled. However, due to many
absences during this period, we will not be in a position to
complete this process before the deadline of 31^st August 2022. We further
extend this deadline until the 7^th September 2022.
We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
DIGIT ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
European Commission
Directorate-General for Informatics
Rue de la Loi 107
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Dear Mr. Fanta,
Please find attached the answer to your access to documents requests registered under the reference numbers mentioned above.
Kindly confirm receipt via a separate email message.
Best regards,
DIGIT Access to Documents
Dear Informatics,
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 'Exchanges on Pegasus'.
You have insufficiently grounded your refusal of my access to documents request. According to Regulation 1049/2001 and established case law, every refusal must be grounded on a specific exception from Article 4 of the regulation. As your reply notes that the documents "contain sensitive information relating to
cybersecurity measures put in place within the Commission in order to ensure the security and confidentiality of its information systems", I surmise that your refusal is meant to be grounded on Article 4(1), first indent.
Pursuant to settled case law, the institution has a duty to identify and list the documents falling under the scope of the request by titles, dates, authors and, if applicable, registration references. I suggest the Commission releases such a list and redacts titles and authors deemed sensitive under the definition of Article 9.
As for the substance of your refusal, insofar as it can be inferred from your very short reply, I want to remind the Commission that the General Court ruled in the Evropaïki Dynamiki case (T-167/10) in regard to a matter of public security that the Commission had to show how disclosure „could specifically and actually undermine that objective in a way that is reasonably foreseeable and not purely hypothetical“. In the Steinberg case (T-17/10), the General Court established that there was a concrete risk of disclosure as the documents might be used to exert pressure on the relevant persons, even to make threats to their physical or moral integrity. I would like to contend that in the present case, the Commission must examine whether the high standard of the exception is met, namely that disclosure would result into an actual threat. If this standard is not met, the documents in question should be released.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
netzpolitik.org e.V.
Schönhauser Allee 6-7
10119 Berlin
Germany
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your email dated 31/08/2022 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
DIGIT in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2022/4189.
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents which was registered on 01/09/2022 (Ares(2022)6063756).
Your application will be handled within 15 working days (22/09/2022). 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
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 2022/4189 - 1st holding letter -
Ares(2022)6555683 (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 Fanta,
I refer to your email of 31 August 2022, registered on 1 September 2022,
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 above.
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 which expires on 22 September 2022. 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
13 October 2022. 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 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@01D8CEA0.CF519870
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
Dear Mr Fanta,
We refer to your email of 31 August 2022, registered on 1 September 2022,
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 above.
We also refer to our holding reply of 22 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 expires on 13 October 2022.
We regret to have to inform you that we are not able to respond within the
extended time-limit, as we have not yet finalised internal consultations.
We can assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide you with a final
reply as soon as possible.
We regret this additional delay and apologise for any inconvenience this
may cause.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents Team
European Commission
Secretariat General
Unit C.1 (Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents)