Stakeholder contacts and internal correspondence on the Multilateral Investment Court (MIC)

The request was successful.

Bart-Jaap Verbeek

Dear DG Trade,

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:

1) a list of meetings between DG Trade officials and/or representatives (including the Commissioner and the Cabinet) and stakeholders, including trade unions, civil society groups, as well as representatives of individual companies, industry associations, law firms, academics, public consultancies and think tanks in which the Multilateral Investment Court (MIC) was discussed (between January 2017 and today);

2) minutes and other reports of these meetings;

3) all correspondence (including emails, letters, faxes) between DG Trade officials and/or representatives (including the Commissioner and the Cabinet) and stakeholders, including trade unions, civil society groups, as well as representatives of individual companies, industry associations, law firms, academics, public consultancies as well as think tanks regarding the Multilateral Investment Court (MIC) (between January 2017 and today);

4) all correspondence (including emails, letters, faxes) and documents (including briefings, memo's, non-papers) shared between DG Trade officials and/or the Commissioner and the Cabinet in which the Multilateral Investment Court (MIC) was discussed (between January 2017 and today).

Yours faithfully,

Bart-Jaap Verbeek
Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)
Sarphatistraat 30
1018 GL Amsterdam
The Netherlands

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Dear Mr Verbeek,
 
Thank you for your e-mail dated 01/08/2018.  We sincerely apologize in the
delay in registering your request. Your email inadvertently got placed in
a wrong folder and we only noticed it today. It was a genuine mistake and
we are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.
 
Your application for access to documents has now been correctly registered
under reference number GestDem 2018/4448 for which we acknowledge receipt.
 
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
10/09/2018. 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.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Access to Documents Team
European Commission 
DG TRADE
 
 

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Dear Mr Verbeek,

 

We refer to your request for access to documents registered on 20/08/2018
under the reference number GestDem 2018/4448.

 

Your application is currently being handled. However, due to the heavy
workload on a large number of requests, we will not be in a position to
complete the handling of your application within the time limit of 15
working days, which expires today.

 

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 01/10/2018.

 

We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.

 

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents Team

[1]cid:image001.png@01D3781C.27834C90
European Commission
DG TRADE

 

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Dear Mr Verbeek,

We refer to your application for access to documents registered by DG TRADE on 20 August 2018 with reference number GestDem 2018/4448.

Having gone in more detail through the relevant files, we have established that your application concerns a very large number of documents, which need to be assessed individually. Such a detailed analysis cannot be carried out within the normal time limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001.

However, Regulation 1049/2001 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. 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 in more detail the objective of your request and your specific interest in the documents requested, and whether you could narrow down the scope of your request, so as to reduce it to a more manageable amount of documents. In order to help you to narrow down your request, the attached list provides you with an overview of the 51 documents that were identified.

To give you an idea of the overall timeline, and taking into account other applications for access to documents and other tasks that the staff concerned are likely to have to deal with during the same period, we would expect to be able to process up to 25 documents within 30 working days. This includes:
- assessment of the content of the documents in light of the exceptions of Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001;
- third-party consultations under Article 4(4) of Regulation 1049/2001;
- final assessment of the documents in light of the comments received;
- drafting of the reply;
- redaction of those parts of the documents to which one or several exceptions apply(ies);
- internal approval of the draft decision on your request;
- preparation of the reply and the documents for dispatch.

We would therefore kindly ask you to reduce the scope of your request by selecting up to 20-25 documents in total of those included in the attached lists, to enable us to reply within 30 working days.

We would kindly ask you for a swift reply to our invitation for a fair solution. 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.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents Team

European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade
[DG TRADE request email]

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Dear Trade,

Thank you for your message. I acknowledge the administrative burden of the access to documents request and dearly appreciate the work done so far. With regard to the invitation for a fair solution, however, I do not agree with the proposal to reduce the scope of the request. The suggestion to choose 25 documents from a list of 51 already identified documents runs counter to the spirit of public access to documents and transparency in EU decision-making processes in general. The purpose of the request is precisely to gain more insights in the kind of contacts with external stakeholders and their role in the formulation and implementation of EU policy proposals. Such openness strengthens the principles of democracy and would also enhance the necessary legitimacy. Moreover, the response to the request is already long overdue. The list of identified documents is not very large and should be manageable within the set time frame.

Nevertheless, in the light of reaching a fair solution, priority could be given to the following documents:
1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49.
The remaining documents could be prepared and delivered in a second batch, as frequently done by DG Trade in other access to documents requests.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

Bart-Jaap Verbeek

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Dear Mr Verbeek,

 

Thank you very much for your reply and cooperation in this matter. As
explained in our previous email, and in accordance with the case-law of
the EU courts (Judgment of the Court of Justice of 2 October 2014 in case
C-127/13, Guido Strack v Commission, paragraphs 26-28), a fair solution
can only concern the content or the number of documents applied for, not
the deadline for replying. That is why we will not be able to deliver a
second batch of documents under this request (which, as you have rightly
pointed out, was our practice in the past but based on relevant case law
it has changed).

 

We will therefore proceed to limit the scope of your request to the
documents you have identified in your email of 19 September (documents 1,
3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45,
46, 47, 49 of the list of documents we sent you on 13 September).

 

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Access to Documents Team

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/trade/images/ec-logo...
European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade

[2][DG TRADE request email] 

 

 

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Dear Trade,

Thank you for your reaction. I will make a separate request for the remaining documents identified on the list of 13 September. In the meanwhile, I am looking forward to receiving the requested documents identified in my email of 19 September.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

Bart-Jaap Verbeek

Dear Trade,

Since two months have passed, I was wondering if you could give a time indication by when I can expect these documents.

Yours faithfully,

Bart-Jaap Verbeek

Dear Mr Verbeek,
Thank you for your email. The reply to your request is about to be signed. You will receive it in the next coming days.

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents Team

European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade
[DG TRADE request email]

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EC ARES NOREPLY,

36 Attachments

Veuillez trouver ci-joint le document Ares(2018)6087220 concernant "[Re] GESTDEM 2018/4448 - Initial request" envoyé par M/Mme DEMARTY Jean-Luc le 28/11/2018.

Please find attached document Ares(2018)6087220 regarding "[Re] GESTDEM 2018/4448 - Initial request" sent by Mr/Ms DEMARTY Jean-Luc on 28/11/2018.

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Note: This e-mail was automatically generated by the European Commission's central mail registration system.
Replies by e-mail must be addressed to the original sender DEMARTY Jean-Luc (mailto:[email address]).
Remarque : Cet e-mail a été généré automatiquement par le système d'enregistrement central du courrier de la Commission européenne.
Toute réponse éventuelle par e-mail doit être adressée à l'expéditeur en personne, à savoir DEMARTY Jean-Luc (mailto:[email address]).

ve_trade.f.2(TRADE), Trade

29 Attachments

Please find attached document Ares(2019)2616424 from VERBEEK Bart-Jaap (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)) dated 15/04/2019.

Veuillez trouver ci-joint le document Ares(2019)2616424 de VERBEEK Bart-Jaap (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)) daté du 15/04/2019.