Sub Committee Meetings on Justice, Freedom and Security

Waiting for an internal review by Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of their handling of this request.

Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

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:

All minutes of EU-Montenegro Sub Committee Meetings on Justice, Freedom and Security.

Yours faithfully,

Arun Dohle

Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Dear Mr Dohle,

Thank you for your request dated 28/07/2016.

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 05/08/2016 under reference number GestDem 2016/4392

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 29/08/2016.
In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

Kind regards,

NEAR ACCDOC

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Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Dear Mr Dohle,

We refer to your request for access to documents, registered on 05/08/2016 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. An extended time limit is needed because different services must be consulted.

Therefore, we have to extend the time limit in accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents. The new time limit will expire on 19/09/2016.

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

Thank you for your understanding.

Yours sincerely,

NEAR ACCDOC.

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Arun Dohle left an annotation ()

Extended Time Limit: 19 September 2016

Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Dear Mr Dohle,

We refer to your request of access to documents Gestdem ref. 2016/4392, registered on 05/08/2016, concerning the minutes of the Sub Committee Meetings on Justice, Freedom and Security of the EU with Montenegro.

As the documents concerned were co-authored by the Montenegrin authorities, they qualify as third-party documents according to art. 4 (4) of Regulation 1049/2001.

This is why the Commission consulted the Montenegrin authorities. We are waiting for their reply.

We apologize for the delay in giving you a substantial reply to your request.

Thank you for your understanding.

Kind regards,

NEAR ACCDOC

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Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations's handling of my FOI request 'Sub Committee Meetings on Justice, Freedom and Security'.

Request for access to documents in the framework of Regulation 1049/2001 (GestDem 2016/4392 on consultation of a third party.
DG NEAR is delaying access to the requested documents.

The initial deadline was 28 August 2016.

Extended deadline 19 September 2016.

Now again they are delaying the access, awaiting reaction from third party.

It seems that DG NEAR did not set a clear deadline for the third party, as suggested by the Ombudsman in case 1743/2013/TN:

" Case 1743/2013/TN: Commission agrees to improve its handling of requests for public access to documents provided by a third party Go to the top of the page

The Commission had not responded, within the stipulated time-limit, to a request for public access to documents, some of which came from a third party. During the course of the inquiry, the Commission gave access to the requested documents.

The Ombudsman made a number of further remarks, suggesting improvements to the Commission's procedures. She suggested that, when an EU institution has to consult a third party in order to assess whether public access can be granted to a document, the institution should give the third party a deadline for its response. If the third party does not respond within the set deadline, the institution should proceed to deciding on the access request, bearing in mind that, in principle, all documents should be accessible to the public. A decision to refuse access to third-party documents cannot be based merely on the third party's undefined reservations regarding disclosure. If the third-party asks the institution who has requested access to the document in question, the third party's request for information should not be allowed to delay the institution's handling of the request for access to the document.

In its follow-up to the Ombudsman's further remarks, the Commission accepted the above suggestions.
http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/cases/fol... "

I would like to know if a clear deadline was set. If not, such a deadline should be set. In case of lack of response by the third party, the documents should be made public.

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

Yours faithfully,

Arun Dohle

Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

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 'Sub Committee Meetings on Justice, Freedom and Security'.

Another 15 days have passed. I got no reaction to the confirmatory appeal.
Also I did not get access to the requested documents.

If I do not get a positive reaction before end of this week, I will hand in a complaint with the European Ombudsman.

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

Yours faithfully,

Arun Dohle

Link to this
From: Arun Dohle

Delivered September 19, 2016

Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations's handling of my FOI request 'Sub Committee Meetings on Justice, Freedom and Security'.

Request for access to documents in the framework of Regulation 1049/2001 (GestDem 2016/4392 on consultation of a third party.
DG NEAR is delaying access to the requested documents.

The initial deadline was 28 August 2016.

Extended deadline 19 September 2016.

Now again they are delaying the access, awaiting reaction from third party.

It seems that DG NEAR did not set a clear deadline for the third party, as suggested by the Ombudsman in case 1743/2013/TN:

" Case 1743/2013/TN: Commission agrees to improve its handling of requests for public access to documents provided by a third party Go to the top of the page

The Commission had not responded, within the stipulated time-limit, to a request for public access to documents, some of which came from a third party. During the course of the inquiry, the Commission gave access to the requested documents.

The Ombudsman made a number of further remarks, suggesting improvements to the Commission's procedures. She suggested that, when an EU institution has to consult a third party in order to assess whether public access can be granted to a document, the institution should give the third party a deadline for its response. If the third party does not respond within the set deadline, the institution should proceed to deciding on the access request, bearing in mind that, in principle, all documents should be accessible to the public. A decision to refuse access to third-party documents cannot be based merely on the third party's undefined reservations regarding disclosure. If the third-party asks the institution who has requested access to the document in question, the third party's request for information should not be allowed to delay the institution's handling of the request for access to the document.

In its follow-up to the Ombudsman's further remarks, the Commission accepted the above suggestions.
http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/cases/fol... "

I would like to know if a clear deadline was set. If not, such a deadline should be set. In case of lack of response by the third party, the documents should be made public.

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

Yours faithfully,

Arun Dohle

Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Dear Mr Dohle,

Thank you for your message.
You will receive a reply to your request which was registered under Gestdem 2016/4392 in the coming days.

We apologize for the delay.

Yours faithfully,

NEAR ACCDOC

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Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dohle,

Following your request for access to documents, please find attached the reply letter.

We apologize for the delay.

Yours faithfully,

NEAR ACCDOC

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Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

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 'Sub Committee Meetings on Justice, Freedom and Security'.

I request the General Secretariat to review the way this request was handeled, from a point of view of delays as well as the decisions to not allow any access. These meetings are the basis for the annual reports and as such the Ministes of the meetings should should be public in order to provide transparency and enable citizens to undestand and verify the assessment of DG NEAR.

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

Yours faithfully,

Arun Dohle

Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

Dear Mr Dohle,

Thank you for your email dated 19/11/2016, 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 NEAR in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2016/4392.

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access to documents which was registered on 21/11/2016 (Ares(2016)6523657).

Your application will be handled within 15 working days (12/12/2016). 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.
We kindly offer you the possibility to provide us a contact phone number (by email to [email address]), 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,

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

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Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Dohle,

 

Please find attached a note for your attention regarding your confirmatory
application GestDem 2016/4392.

 

Best regards,

 

 

 

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (NL)

[1]cid:image002.jpg@01CFC082.A6D14DD0
European Commission
Secretariat General
B4 – Transparency

 

References

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Arun Dohle left an annotation ()

Extended deadline: 10 January 2017

Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Dohle,

 

Please find attached a letter concerning your application for access to
documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Gestdem 2016/4392

 

Yours sincerely,

 

TEAM ACCESS DOCUMENTS
[1]cid:image001.gif@01D10B5D.0CD08030
European Commission
Secretariat General

Unit B4 - Transparency

 

References

Visible links

Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

7 Attachments

Dear Mr Dohle,

 

Please find attached an advance information copy of the confirmatory
decision taken on your request for access to documents registered under
Gestdem number 2016/4392, adopted on 13/02/2017 in the above-mentioned
case.

 

Please note that the Secretariat General of the European Commission will
proceed with the formal notification of the decision in the coming days.

 

This advance copy is solely sent for your information and is not the
formal notification of the confirmatory decision.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

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

 

Dear Mr. Remis,

Thank you very much for this. I am glad that in the confirmatory appeal procedure partial access has been provided to the requested documents.

However, no access was provided to the attachments of the first 2010 minutes.

I consider such attachments an integral part of the Minutes, so I hereby request access.

Yours faithfully,

Arun Dohle

Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

Please copy this to the General Secretariat, Mr. Remis.

Three weeks have passed and I did not get the requested document.
Please let me know your final decision a.s.a.p.

Yours faithfully,
Arun Dohle

From: Arun Dohle

Delivered February 14, 2017

Dear Mr. Remis,

Thank you very much for this. I am glad that in the confirmatory appeal procedure partial access has been provided to the requested documents.

However, no access was provided to the attachments of the first 2010 minutes.

I consider such attachments an integral part of the Minutes, so I hereby request access.

Yours faithfully,

Arun Dohle

Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Dohle,

 

Thank you for your email below.

After further verification with DG NEAR, we can confirm that the document
in question does not contain any attachment.

Yours sincerely,

 

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

 

 

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