Meetings on renewable gas between Director General, his cabinet and stakeholders

The request was partially successful.

Dear Energy,

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:

- the minutes of all meetings held between Director-General Dominique Ristori and/or his cabinet with stakeholders where renewable or low-carbon gas was mentioned, from January 2017 to the present day. This includes bio-methane, hydrogen (via power-to-gas or from steam methane reforming with or without CCS), natural gas with CCS or (bio)CNG/LNG for transport.

- all documents related to meetings held between Director-General Dominique Ristori and/or his cabinet with stakeholders where renewable or low-carbon gas was mentioned, from January 2017 to the present day. This includes bio-methane, hydrogen (via power-to-gas or from steam methane reforming with or without CCS), natural gas with CCS or (bio)CNG/LNG for transport. This should include, but not be limited to, all presentations/briefings/papers presented during the meetings, as well as correspondence exchanged before or after the meeting,

- any other correspondence between Director-General Dominique Ristori and/or his cabinet with stakeholders where renewable or low-carbon gas was mentioned, from January 2017 to the present day. This includes bio-methane, hydrogen (via power-to-gas or from steam methane reforming with or without CCS), natural gas with CCS or (bio)CNG/LNG for transport.

Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido

Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
 
 
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
 
 
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
 
 

References

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1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...

Dear Energy,

Apologies, I forgot my address in the original request:

Corporate Europe Observatory
Mundo-B
Rue d'Edimbourg
Bruxelles 1050
Belgium

Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido

Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
 
 
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
 
 
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
 
 

References

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1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...

EC ARES NOREPLY,

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[1]Ares(2018)5167239 - RE: access to documents request - Meetings on
renewable gas between Director General, his cabinet and stakeholders ---
Ref. Gestdem 2018/5296

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

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 08/10/2018.  We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on
09/10/2018 under reference number GestDem 2018/5296.

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
30/10/2018.

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 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 also that the European Commission is not responsible for any
possible processing of personal data by the private organisation running
the AsktheEU.org website, through which you have channelled your request.
Please refer to their privacy policy.

Kind regards,

Carlos Remis
SG.B.4
Transparence
Berl. 05/315

show quoted sections

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Sabido,

We refer to your e-mail dated 8 October 2018, in which you make a request
for access to documents, registered on 09/10/2018 under the
above-mentioned reference number.

Your application concerns a very large number of documents – including
documents originating from third parties -, which need to be assessed
individually. Such a detailed analysis, together with the need to consult
the third parties concerned in accordance with Article 4(4) and 4(5) of
Regulation 1049/2001, cannot be carried out within the normal time limits
set out in Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001.

However, the Regulation also provides for a possibility to confer with
applicants in order to find a fair solution when an application relates to
a very long document or concerns a very large number of documents. Article
6(3) provides that in the event of an application relating to a very long
document or to very large number of documents, the institution concerned
may confer with the applicant informally, with a view to finding a fair
solution.

In accordance with the case law of the EU Courts, such a solution can only
concern the content or the number of documents applied for, not the
deadline for replying (see Judgment of the Court of Justice of 2 October
2014 in case C-127/13, Guido Strack v Commission, paragraphs 26-28). This
means that the scope of the request must be reduced in a way that would
enable its treatment within the extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days.

Based on the above-mentioned provision, we would kindly ask you to specify
the objective of your request and your specific interest in the documents
requested, and whether you could narrow down the scope of your request
(i.e. the subject matter(s) and/or timeframe covered), so as to reduce it
to a more manageable amount of documents.

In order to help you to narrow down your request, you may refer to the
list of meetings of Director General Dominique Ristori with organisations
and self-employed individuals available at the following website:

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiati...

 

You may also be able to find information on the subject matters mentioned
in your request – including information on conferences and events - on DG
Energy's website dedicated to the European Strategic Energy Technology
Plan (SET-Plan):

[2]https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/te...

 

In order to enable us to respect the time-limits of Regulation 1049/2001,
we would ask you for a swift reply to our invitation to propose a fair
solution, within five working days at the latest:

·         by email to: [3][email address]

If you have any questions concerning the invitation, you can contact us at
the above mentioned e-mail address.

In the absence of a reply within five working days, we will unilaterally
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 09/10/2018.

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Yours faithfully,

 

 

[4]cid:image001.png@01D03ECB.9741CEE0

European Commission

 

DG Energy
ENER ACCESS DOCUMENTS
Email: [5][email address]

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiati...
2. https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/te...
3. mailto:[email address]
5. mailto:[email address]

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Sabido,

We refer to your e-mail dated 8 October 2018, in which you make a request
for access to documents, registered on 09/10/2018 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 30/10/2018.

As mentioned in our email dated 29/10/2018, your application concerns a
very large number of documents – including documents originating from
third parties -, which need to be assessed individually. Such a detailed
analysis, together with the need to consult the third parties, cannot be
carried out within the normal time limits set out in Article 7 of
Regulation 1049/2001.

We would kindly ask you to specify the objective of your request and your
specific interest in the documents requested, and whether you could narrow
down the scope of your request (i.e. the subject matter(s) and/or
timeframe covered), so as to reduce it to a more manageable amount of
documents.

In the meantime, 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 22/11/2018.

Yours sincerely,

 

 

[1]cid:image001.png@01D03ECB.9741CEE0

European Commission

 

DG Energy
ENER ACCESS DOCUMENTS
Email: [2][email address]

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]

Dear Energy,

Thank you for your response.

Firstly, can you please give me an idea of how large a request this was? How many documents do you estimate to have found?

Secondly, in answer to your question, my objective is to have an overview of the lobbying towards Ristori and his cabinet on the topic of renewable and low-carbon gas, as CEO is a research organisation that publishes articles on lobbying.

Thirdly, to make things simpler, we can initially deal with the parts of the request related to the publicly disclosed meetings.

As the meetings are published on line, and minutes are kept as standard practice, please provide me with the minutes of all meetings, as well as any accompanying documents that go with them (e.g. presentations/briefings/papers presented during the meetings), where renewable or low-carbon gas was mentioned, from January 2017 to the present day. This includes bio-methane, hydrogen (via power-to-gas or from steam methane reforming with or without CCS), natural gas with CCS or (bio)CNG/LNG for transport.

Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido

Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
 
 
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
 
 
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
 
 

References

Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Sabido,

 

Thank you very much for your reply to our message of 29 October 2018.

 

In your reply, you state that you would like us to "initially deal with
the parts of the request related to the publicly disclosed meetings",
insofar as renewable or low-carbon gas was mentioned in those meetings.

 

However, since – as explained in our previous message – all meetings of
Director General Ristori with organisations and self-employed individuals
are systematically publicly disclosed, this statement does not in practice
limit the scope of your request in any meaningful way that would make it
reasonably possible for DG Energy to handle your request within the time
limits foreseen by Regulation 1049/2001.

 

As you can see from the published list of Director General Ristori's
meetings with organisations and self-employed inviduals, in total 161 such
meetings took place in the time frame covered by your request (January
2017 to present). Many of these meetings covered a broad range of topics.
Furthermore, contrary to what you suggest, minutes of these meetings are
not systematically drawn. Thus, in order to identify those meetings during
which the topics mentioned in your request were discussed – and, as a
consequence, the number of documents actually covered -, DG Energy would
have to go through all the accompanying documents of each and every of the
161 meetings in question.

 

This is not possible for DG Energy within the time frame foreseen by
Regulation 1049/2001.

 

We must therefore reiterate our request, in accordance with Article 6(3)
of Regulation 1049/2001, to kindly indicate whether you could narrow down
the scope of your request, either by limiting the time frame covered
and/or by identifying meetings with specific interlocutors.

 

Please reply within five working days by e-mail to
[1][email address]. In the absence of a reply within
this time frame, we are obliged to unilaterally 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 on 9 October 2018.

 

Thank you again for your understanding.

 

Kind regards,

 

 

[2]cid:image001.png@01D03ECB.9741CEE0

European Commission

 

DG Energy
ENER ACCESS DOCUMENTS
Email: [3][email address]

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[email address]

6 Attachments

Dear Mr Sabido,

 

Further to your request (Ref. GestDem 2018/5296) for receiving a copy of:

 

- The minutes of all meetings held between Director-General Dominique
Ristori and/or his cabinet with stakeholders where renewable or low-carbon
gas was mentioned, from January 2017 to the present day. This includes
bio-methane, hydrogen (via power-to-gas or from steam methane reforming
with or without CCS), natural gas with CCS or (bio)CNG/LNG for transport.

 

- All documents related to meetings held between Director-General
Dominique Ristori and/or his cabinet with stakeholders where renewable or
low-carbon gas was mentioned, from January 2017 to the present day. This
includes bio-methane, hydrogen (via power-to-gas or from steam methane
reforming with or without CCS), natural gas with CCS or (bio)CNG/LNG for
transport. This should include, but not be limited to, all
presentations/briefings/papers presented during the meetings, as well as
correspondence exchanged before or after the meeting,

 

- Any other correspondence between Director-General Dominique Ristori
and/or his cabinet with stakeholders where renewable or low-carbon gas was
mentioned, from January 2017 to the present day. This includes
bio-methane, hydrogen (via power-to-gas or from steam methane reforming
with or without CCS), natural gas with CCS or (bio)CNG/LNG for transport.

 

Please find attached the documents related to your request.

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

 

[1]cid:image001.png@01D03ECB.9741CEE0

European Commission

 

DG ENERGY – Access to documents team
Email: [2][email address]

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

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2. mailto:[email address]