Meetings with Shell, BP, Total, ENI, Repsol, Galp and Equinor

Climate Action did not have the information requested.

Dear DG Clima,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting for the period between 30 November 2015 to date, a list of all meetings held by DG Clima with the following representatives: Shell, BP, Total, ENI, Repsol, Galp and Equinor.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any doubts or question in regards to this request.
Thank you in advance.
Yours faithfully,

Lora Verheecke
rue du Bronze 9
1070 Bruxelles

CLIMA-ACCESS-DOCUMENTS@ec.europa.eu, Climate Action

Dear Ms Verheecke,

Thank you for email from 21 July 2021. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 27 July 2021 under reference number GESTDEM 2021/4722.

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 17 August 2021. 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
Directorate-General for Climate Action
Av. de Beaulieu 24
1049 Brussels

-----Original Message-----
From: Lora Verheecke <[FOI #9782 email]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2021 12:58 PM
To: CLIMA ACCESS DOCUMENTS <[email address]>
Subject: access to documents request - Meetings with Shell, BP, Total, ENI, Repsol, Galp and Equinor

Dear DG Clima,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting for the period between 30 November 2015 to date, a list of all meetings held by DG Clima with the following representatives: Shell, BP, Total, ENI, Repsol, Galp and Equinor.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any doubts or question in regards to this request.
Thank you in advance.
Yours faithfully,

Lora Verheecke
rue du Bronze 9
1070 Bruxelles

-------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a request for access to information under Article 15 of the TFEU and, where applicable, Regulation 1049/2001 which has been sent via the AsktheEU.org website.

Please kindly use this email address for all replies to this request: [FOI #9782 email]

If [DG CLIMA request email] is the wrong address for information requests to Climate Action, please tell the AsktheEU.org team on email [email address]

This message and all replies from Climate Action will be published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

hide quoted sections

CLIMA-ACCESS-DOCUMENTS@ec.europa.eu, Climate Action

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Verheecke,

 

Enclosed please find a copy of our reply.

 

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][email address].

 

Kind regards,

 

Access to Documents team

 

European Commission

Directorate-General for Climate Action

Av. de Beaulieu 24

1049 Brussels

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Climate Action,

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 'Meetings with Shell, BP, Total, ENI, Repsol, Galp and Equinor'.

The refusal is based on the presumption that the DG does not hold a list of all the meetings between DG Climate and representatives of the 7 companies afore mentioned.

My arguments in favour of disclosure are the following:

I see an overriding public interest in disclosure of the requested information as the meetings were all related to climate action, an issue which affects all EU citizens and who is at the center of the EU's Green Deal, its flagship policy. The public should have the right to know how major decisions are taken on such a topic.

Furthermore, Regulation 1049/2001 states that "the institutions shall develop good administrative practices in order to facilitate the exercise of the right of access guaranteed by this Regulation". The DG should have kept records of all its meetings with external stakeholders. It is of good administrative practice to keep a record of all external meetings. I am only requesting a list of all those meetings.

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

Yours faithfully,

Lora Verheecke

SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Climate Action

Dear Madam,

Thank you for your email dated 31/07/2021 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
CLIMA in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2021/4722.

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents which was registered on 02/08/2021 (Ares(2021)4911459).

Your application will be handled within 15 working days (23/08/2021). 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

-----Original Message-----
From: Lora Verheecke <[FOI #9782 email]>
Sent: Saturday, July 31, 2021 10:13 PM
To: CLIMA ACCESS DOCUMENTS <[email address]>
Subject: Internal review of access to documents request - Meetings with
Shell, BP, Total, ENI, Repsol, Galp and Equinor

Dear Climate Action,

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 'Meetings with Shell, BP, Total, ENI, Repsol,
Galp and Equinor'.

The refusal is based on the presumption that the DG does not hold a list
of all the meetings between DG Climate and representatives of the 7
companies afore mentioned.

My arguments in favour of disclosure are the following:

I see an overriding public interest in disclosure of the requested
information as the meetings were all related to climate action, an issue
which affects all EU citizens and who is at the center of the EU's Green
Deal, its flagship policy. The public should have the right to know how
major decisions are taken on such a topic.

Furthermore, Regulation 1049/2001 states that "the institutions shall
develop good administrative practices in order to facilitate the exercise
of the right of access guaranteed by this Regulation". The DG should have
kept records of all its meetings with external stakeholders. It is of good
administrative practice to keep a record of all external meetings. I am
only requesting a list of all those meetings.

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the
Internet at this address:
[1]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

Yours faithfully,

Lora Verheecke

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #9782 email]

This message and all replies from Climate Action will be published on the
AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU
public officials at
[2]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Visible links
1. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....
2. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....

hide quoted sections

Dear SG ACCES DOCUMENTS,

Thank you for your message.
My contact phone number is 04 86 31 00 34
Yours sincerely,

Lora Verheecke

SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Climate Action

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 2021/4722 - 2nd holding letter -
Ares(2021)5604128  (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 Ms Verheecke,

 

I refer to your email of 31 July 2021, registered on 2 August 2021, 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.

 

I also refer to our holding reply of 23 August 2021, by which the time
limit for replying to your confirmatory application was extended by 15
working days, pursuant to Article 8(2) of Regulation 1049/2001. This
extended time limit expires on 13 September 2021.

 

I 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.
I can assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide you with a final
reply as soon as possible.

 

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

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

María OLIVÁN AVILÉS
Head of Unit

[6]cid:image001.gif@01D13362.41D673C0

European Commission

Secretariat General

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

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D7A8AB.84A35690
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...

Dear SG ACCES DOCUMENTS,

Thank you for your decision.

Yours sincerely,

Lora Verheecke