Submissions of the parties and interveners/observers in the Joined Cases C-597/18 P, C-598/18 P, C-603/18 P, C-604/18 P (Council v. Chrysostomides).

The request was partially successful.

Dear Legal Service,

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 legal submissions/observations of the parties and interveners in the Joined Cases C-597/18 P, C-598/18 P, C-603/18 P, C-604/18 P (Council v. Chrysostomides).

Yours faithfully,

Nicholas Haagensen
[ADDRESS REDACTED]
[ADDRESS REDACTED]
[ADDRESS REDACTED]

ve_sj.acces docs (SJ), Legal Service

2 Attachments

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Ares(2020)7876272 - Your request for Access to Documents - Fair
Solution proposal

Sent by ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. All responses
have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Mr Haagensen,

Acknowledgement of receipt

We refer to your email of 17 December 2020 by which you submit a request
for access to documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.

You have lodged your applications 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.

Also, kindly note that this private third party  ̶  running the
AsktheEU.org website  ̶  is responsible and accountable for the processing
of your personal data via this website and not the European Commission.
For more information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s
privacy policy.

Furthermore, the third party usually publishes on this website the content
of the applicants’ correspondence with the European Commission. This
includes personal data which you have communicated to the European
Commission (e.g. your private postal address, contact details, etc.) as
well as any reply which the European Commission will send to you.

Should you 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 future correspondence. In this
case, the European Commission will send all electronic correspondence
addressed to you to the private email you have provided.

Documents requested

Your request concerns: “The legal submissions/observations of the parties
and interveners in the Joined Cases C-597/18 P, C-598/18 P, C-603/18 P,
C-604/18 P (Council v. Chrysostomides).”

Please be informed that Cases C-597/18 P, C-598/18 P, C-603/18 P and
C-604/18 P were joined for the purpose of the oral procedure and for the
judgment.

The Legal Service has established a list of the documents concerned by
your request (please find attached). As illustrated, the total number of
documents requested is 65, 24 of which the Commission is the author while
the remaining 41 originate from Member States and other third parties. In
other words, cases C-597/18 P and C-598/18 P contain 13 documents each,
Case     C-603/18 P contains 19 and Case C-604/18 P contains 20 documents.

Language of the proceedings and availability of documents

English was the language of the proceedings in all four cases. Hence, all
documents are available in English. A French translation of the
Commission’s submissions is also available as well as the Finnish original
of the Statement in Intervention lodged by Finland.

Kindly inform us whether you would like to receive all documents in
English or whether you prefer the above-mentioned language options for
some of them.

Assessment of documents and consultation of third parties

Please note that regarding the Commission’s documents (24 documents), the
Legal Service has to carry out a concrete assessment of each document
before taking the decision of granting / refusing access. This is to
guarantee that they can actually be disclosed and do not contain any
information that should be covered by any of the exceptions of Regulation
1049/2001, despite the fact that these cases are no longer pending before
the Court.

With regard to the documents originating from third parties (41
documents), the Commission has to consult those parties according to
Article 4(4) of Regulation 1049/2001, which provides that the institution
shall consult the third parties with a view to assessing whether an
exception in paragraph 1 of 2 is applicable. Therefore, the Legal Service
will consult the third parties setting a deadline of 10 working days, in
order for them to communicate the conclusions of their assessments. This
consultation period adds an additional administrative step to the handling
of your requests, taking into particular consideration the end-of-year
holiday’s break.

Once the process of consultation is concluded, the Legal Service will have
to proceed to a final assessment of the documents in the light of the
comments received and, where necessary, to redact the parts of the
documents to which one or several exceptions apply. Finally, it will have
to draft the reply, submit it for review and approval by the competent
persons and prepare the reply and documents for dispatch.

Fair solution proposal

In view of the large number of documents concerned by your request and the
consultation procedure referred to above, it will not be possible for the
Legal Service to provide you with a reply within the time limit set by
Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001. In this respect, please also note that
the Commission cannot privilege one applicant and has to guarantee that
all the requests are dealt with within the deadlines of Regulation
1049/2001 or, where not possible – as in the present case – to seek a fair
solution in conformity with Article 6(3) that reconciles the interests of
the applicant with those of good administration.

In accordance with the case-law of the EU Courts, a Fair Solution can only
concern the content or the number of documents applied for, not the
deadline for replying (judgment of 2 October 2014 in Case C-127/13, Guido
Strack v. Commission, EU:C:2014:2250, paragraphs 26-28). This means that
the scope of your request must be narrowed down in a way that would enable
its treatment within the extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days.

In view of the foregoing, we would like to propose a fair solution that
enables us to reconcile your interest with the principle of good
administration and without prejudice to other applicants’ requests.

The Legal Service considers that it would be in a position to deal, within
the extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days from the date of
registration of your request, with:

Ø  either the submissions on a case-per-case basis. For this option, we
ask you to indicate the case you would like to receive;

Ø  or a maximum of 16-17 documents to be chosen by you from those
indicated in the attached table.

Kindly send your agreement to this proposal, to the following email
address: [6][SJ request email]

Once we receive your reply, we will proceed to the registration of your
request and start running the deadline indicated above to deal within.

Your sincerely,

Access to Documents team

[7]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10

European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

[8][email address]

 

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D6D87F.04D7DC30
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
6. mailto:[SJ request email]
8. mailto:[email address]

Dear ve_sj.acces docs (SJ),

Thank you for the response.
In response to the first point, I would like the documents in English please.

As for the second point, I would like to choose the following 17 documents as per your second proposal: all the documents in case C-597/18 P, which is 13 documents, plus the following 4 documents from case C--603/18P: the Council's 'cross appeal'; the 'appeal' and 'response to cross-appeal', of K. Chrysostomides & Co, and finally the Commission's 'response'.
I hope this makes the request more manageable.

Yours sincerely,

Nicholas Haagensen

ve_sj.acces docs (SJ), Legal Service

1 Attachment

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Ares(2020)7903407 - Your request for Access to Documents - Confirmation
of registration

Sent by ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. All responses
have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Mr Haagensen,

 

Thank you for accepting our fair solution proposal.

 

Your request has been registered today, 23 December 2020, under reference:
GestDem 2020/7954 and concerns 17 documents, consisting of:

·       Case C-597/18 P (all 13 documents);

·       Case C-603/18P (4 documents), namely:

–      the Council's 'cross appeal';

–      the 'appeal' and 'response to cross-appeal', of K. Chrysostomides &
Co;

–      the Commission's 'response'.

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+15 working days. The time limit will expire on
12 February 2021.

 

We shall inform you in due course, in case this time limit needs to be
extended.

 

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year 2021!

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Access to Documents team

[6]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10

European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

[7][email address]

 

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D6D93A.DBD41C10
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]

ve_sj.acces docs (SJ), Legal Service

12 Attachments

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Ares(2021)939518 - Your request for Access to Documents - Reference:
GestDem2020/7954

Sent by ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. All responses
have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sj.acces docs (SJ) <[SJ request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Mr Haagensen,

 

Attached, please find the Legal Service’s reply to your above-referenced
request for access to documents, as per the Fair Solution proposal agreed
upon on 23 December 2020.

 

Under the current COVID-19 pandemic circumstances, the Commission is
unable to send you the original of this reply by Registered Mail.

 

In the light of this, we kindly ask you to confirm and acknowledge, by
return email, receipt of the Commission Legal Service’s reply as well as
its attachments.

 

Thank you for your understanding

 

Kind regards,

 

Access to Documents team

[6]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10

European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

[7][email address]

 

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D6FA3D.8370B8C0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]

Dear ve_sj.acces docs (SJ),
Dear Legal service,

Thank you very much for the response and the attached documents.
I confirm receipt of the Legal Services' reply and documents.

Yours sincerely,

Nicholas Haagensen