Health Research and Innovation
Dear Research and Innovation,
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:
- From DG RTD (including the cabinet of R&I Commissioner Moedas):
- from or to: Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), EFPIA, ECHAlliance, MedTech Europe
- including briefings, reports, correspondence (email or other), including all attachments to the said correspondence,
- a list of all meetings, as well as agendas and minutes or any other reports of such meetings.
- between March 2018 and today.
I kindly ask you to not redact any name of professional lobbyists and the organisations and companies they work, as such data cannot be considered personal data under Regulations 1049/2001 on access to documents and 45/2001 on data protection.
Similarly, I kindly urge you to not apply an excessive interpretation of the clause on commercial secrets under 1049/2001.
Should this request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions by referring to specific exemptions in the regulation, and by justifying your interpretation of the applicable legislation.
I look forward to a positive consideration of this request.
Yours faithfully,
Jill McArdle
[1]Ares(2019)4088966 - RE: Acknowledgment of receipt - access to documents
request - Health Research and Innovation - GestDem 2019/3711
Sent by ve_rtd.access documents (RTD) <[DG RTD request email]>.
All responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_rtd.access documents (RTD)
<[DG RTD request email]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Ms McArdle,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 27 June 2019. We hereby acknowledge
receipt of your request for access to documents, registered on the same
date under reference number GestDem 2019/3711.
In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your requests will
be handled within 15 working days. The time limit will expire on
18/07/2019. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course.
You have lodged your request 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 requestors’ 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,
RTD Access to documents
European Commission
DG Research & Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
ORBN
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[email address]
Dear ve_rtd.access documents (RTD),
In case also needed, my postal address:
Jill McArdle
Global Health Advocates
Tribes
17 Avenue Marnix
1000 Brussels
Yours sincerely,
Jill McArdle
Yours sincerely,
Jill McArdle
[1]Ares(2019)4110834 - Acknowledgment of receipt - access to documents
request - Health Research and Innovation - GestDem 2019/3711
Sent by ve_rtd.access documents (RTD) <[DG RTD request email]>.
All responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_rtd.access documents (RTD)
<[DG RTD request email]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Thank you, we will register the request accordingly.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to documents
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping
[4]Ares(2019)4685952 - Your request for access to documents registered
under reference GestDem 2019/3711
Sent by ve_rtd.access documents (RTD) <[DG RTD request email]>.
All responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_rtd.access documents (RTD)
<[DG RTD request email]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Ms McArdle,
We refer to your request for access to documents, within the framework of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 registered under reference GestDem
2019/3711.
The deadline for the treatment of your request expires today, 18/07/2019.
However, for the purposes of your request various directorates of DG
Research and Innovation had to be consulted on the identification of
documents falling within its scope. For this reason, we have to extend the
time limit by 15 working days, in accordance with Article 7(3) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. Please note that the new time limit expires
on 08/08/2019.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
RTD Access to documents
European Commission
DG Research & Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[5][email address]
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D53D94.E4A2DB30
2. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
3. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
4. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...
5. mailto:[email address]
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping
[4]Ares(2019)4961135 - Your request for access to documents registered
under reference GestDem 2019/3711- Fair solution proposal
Sent by ve_rtd.access documents (RTD) <[DG RTD request email]>.
All responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_rtd.access documents (RTD)
<[DG RTD request email]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Ms McArdle,
We refer to your request for access to documents, within the framework of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, which is phrased as follows:
- From DG RTD (including the cabinet of R&I Commissioner Moedas):
- from or to: Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), EFPIA, ECHAlliance,
MedTech Europe
- including briefings, reports, correspondence (email or other), including
all attachments to the said correspondence,
- a list of all meetings, as well as agendas and minutes or any other
reports of such meetings.
- between March 2018 and today. [27/06/2019 was the date of the submission
of your request].
After having assessed your request and consulted various services which
hold documents possibly covered under its scope, we have identified
approximately 70 documents falling within its scope.
In addition, we have identified 2 ongoing audit files, performed on
projects handled by IMI2 JU. Please note with this regard that on average
one audit file may include approximately 300 documents which relate to the
planning of the audit, the audit input file, the examination and the
closure of the procedure, including exchanges with the auditee.
Given the high number of the documents concerned, the scope of your
request is very wide and therefore cannot be handled within the time
limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001. Furthermore, public
disclosure of most of the documents would require consultation with third
parties – authors of the documents, as stipulated in article 4(4) of the
regulation, which would further delay the analysis of the documents
concerned.
As you know, article 6(3) of Regulation 1049/2001 provides that in the
event of an application relating to a very long document or to a very
large number of documents, the institution concerned may confer with the
applicant informally, with a view to finding a fair solution.
In fact, in accordance with the case law of the General Court, in the case
of requests related to a manifestly unreasonable number of documents, the
treatment of which could substantially paralyse the proper working of the
institution, the latter retains the right to balance the interest of the
applicant in public access to the documents against the administrative
burden for the Institution so caused, in order to safeguard, in those
particular cases, the interests of good administration (see to this
respect the judgments of the General Court in case T-344/08, EnBW Energie
Baden-Württemberg v Commission, paragraph 105, ECLI:EU:T:2012:242 and in
case T-2/03, Verein für Konsumenteninformation v Commission, paragraphs
101-102, ECLI:EU:T:2005:125).
We would like also to remind you that, as clarified in our past exchanges,
in accordance with the case law, a fair solution can only concern the
content or the number of documents applied for, not the deadline for
replying. This means that the scope of your requests must be reduced in a
way that would enable its treatment within the extended deadline of 15+15
working days.
Based on the above, we would kindly ask you to specify the objective of
your wide-scoped request and your specific interest in the documents
requested, with a view to narrowing down its scope and reaching a
manageable number of documents.
In order to help you to narrow down your request, please note that the
following categories of documents have been identified as falling under
the scope of your request:
1. Documents exchanged between the Directorate General for Research
and Innovation and the identified organisations/entities (approximately 36
documents). More specifically:
· Documents concerning meetings with JUs, such as minutes of the
meetings of the IMI Governing Board, emails concerning meetings (e.g.
containing their agendas), minutes/conclusions of meetings (approximately
29 documents).
· Two notes on budgetary issues, one of which concerning IMI and
one concerning IMI and EFPIA.
· Miscellaneous e-mail exchanges.
2. Documents exchanged between the Cabinet of Commissioner Moedas
and the requested organisations/entities (approximately 33 documents).
· approximately 25 documents referring to EFPIA,
· 4 documents referring to IMI,
· 4 documents referring to MedTech.
3. Documents concerning the identified audit files, each of which
concerns different audits performed on projects under H2020.
(approximately 300 documents per audit file) Please note that due to the
large amount of the documents, we have not yet proceeded to the exact
identification of the documents concerning these audit files.
Please note that no documents have been identified concerning ECHAlliance.
According to our estimates, a maximum of 20 documents could possibly be
dealt with within the extended deadline of 30 working days counting from
the date of registration of you application.
Therefore, in order to reconcile your interest in obtaining the requested
documents with the efficiency of the Institution’s administration, we
would like to propose the option of restricting the scope of your request
to documents, for example:
· only under category 2 (e.g. 20 documents exchanged between the
Cabinet of Commissioner Moedas and the requested organisations)
· under categories 1 and 2, but relating only to one entity which
needs to be consulted (e.g. 20 documents under categories 1 and 2 related
to IMI JU).
We remain open to other options that could help narrowing down the request
while safeguarding your interest in public access.
In order to enable us to provide you with a reply as soon as possible, we
would ask you for a swift response to our proposal for a fair solutions
within five working days at the latest, by email to
[5][email address].
Please consider that unfortunately, in the absence of a reply within five
working days, we will be forced to restrict the scope of your application
to those parts that can be dealt with within the extended deadline of 30
working days, counting from the registration of your application, in order
to provide you with a reply to your access to documents request.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Yours sincerely,
RTD Access to documents
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D54636.78D745D0
2. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
3. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
4. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...
5. mailto:[email address]
Dear ve_rtd.access documents (RTD),
Thank you for your reply and proposals.
I would propose another option, as it is the first category that would be preferable (Documents exchanged between the Directorate General for Research and Innovation and the identified organisations).
So I would please request:
· only under category 1 (e.g. 20 documents exchanged between the Directorate General for Research and Innovation and the identified organisations)
Note: As your option would have entailed sending only part of the second category (20 documents out of 33 identified), I take it the same can be done for the first category (sending 20 out of 36).
Yours sincerely,
Jill McArdle
[1]Ares(2019)5162658 - Your request for access to documents registered
under reference GestDem 2019/3711- Fair solution - extension of deadline
Sent by ve_rtd.access documents (RTD) <[DG RTD request email]>.
All responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_rtd.access documents (RTD)
<[DG RTD request email]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Ms McArdle,
We refer to your request of 27 June 2019 registered on the same date under
reference number GestDem 2019/3711.
We thank you for your e-mail of 1 august 2019 by which you agree to
restrict the scope of your request.
The extended deadline for reply expires today: 08 August 2019.
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were not in the position to
complete its handling.
This unusual delay is caused by the fact that the documents concerned are
held by different services which needed to be consulted. In addition, part
of these documents originate from third parties which also need to be
consulted.
The reply to your request is currently being drafted. Please be assured
that we are doing our utmost to provide you with the final reply as soon
as possible.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for the inconveniences we may have
caused you.
Yours sincerely,
RTD Access to documents
European Commission
DG Research & Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
ORBN
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[email address]
Dear ve_rtd.access documents (RTD),
I would kindly ask that you provide me urgently with a new date of delivery for the requested documents, which are by now long overdue. Your last mail failed to provide even an indicative timeline for when the documents would be sent.
Yours sincerely,
Jill McArdle
[1]Ares(2019)5295863 - RE: Ares(2019)5162658 - Your request for access to
documents registered under reference GestDem 2019/3711- Fair solution -
extension of deadline
Sent by ve_rtd.access documents (RTD) <[DG RTD request email]>.
All responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_rtd.access documents (RTD)
<[DG RTD request email]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Ms McArdle,
Thank you for your e-mail.
Please accept our apologies for the unusual delay in the handling of your
application, registered under reference number GestDem 2019/3711.
As already explained, this delay has been caused by the fact that, for the
purposes of your request, we have consulted other Commission services and
third parties which need to provide their opinion on disclosure of the
documents concerned. These consultations have caused further delay to the
treatment of the request in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Please be assured that we are handling your application with priority and
we will do our utmost to provide you with the final reply in the coming
days.
Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused by this
delay.
Yours sincerely,
RTD Access to documents
European Commission
DG Research & Innovation
Common Legal Support Service
ORBN
1049 Brussels/Belgium
[email address]