sustainability criteria biomass RED period 2 CLIMA

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Climate Action should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

From: Belen Balanya, Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels.
19 December 2018
RE: Access to Documents related to biomass/RED

Dear sirs,
Referring to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to EU documents and to the 'Aarhus Regulation' (see note), I would herewith like to ask for access to the following:

- all correspondence (including email) between 1st February 2018 and 30th June 2018 between the Commissioner for Climate Action and/or his cabinet and/or officials and representatives of DG CLIMA on one hand and representatives from the Confederation of European Private Foresters, Drax, Enviva, EUBIA (the European Biomass Industry Association), IEA Bioenergy, REA (UK renewable energy association), Bioenergy Europe (formerly AEBIOM), Svebio (the Swedish Bioenergy Association), DI Bioenergi (the Danish Bioenergy Association), Bioenergia (the Bioenergy Association of Finland), EBA, (the Estonian Biomass Association), EREA (the Estonian Renewable Energy Association), LATbio (The Latvian biomass association), LAEF (Latvian Renewable Energy federation) and/or WBA (World Bioenergy Association) on the other, in which the issue of sustainability criteria for biomass within the revised Renewable Energy Directive was addressed.

- list of meetings between 1st February 2018 and 30th June 2018 between officials and representatives of DG CLIMA on one hand and representatives representatives from the Confederation of European Private Foresters, Drax, Enviva, EUBIA (the European Biomass Industry Association), IEA Bioenergy, REA (UK renewable energy association), Bioenergy Europe (formerly AEBIOM), Svebio (the Swedish Bioenergy Association), DI Bioenergi (the Danish Bioenergy Association), Bioenergia (the Bioenergy Association of Finland), EBA, (the Estonian Biomass Association), EREA (the Estonian Renewable Energy Association), LATbio (The Latvian biomass association), LAEF (Latvian Renewable Energy federation) and/or WBA (World Bioenergy Association) on the other, in which the issue of sustainability criteria for biomass within the revised Renewable Energy Directive was addressed.

- minutes of the meetings mentioned above

I would like to make clear I prefer you produce the documents on a rolling basis.
At no point should the Commission’s search for—or deliberations concerning—certain documents delay the production of others that the Commission has already retrieved and elected to produce.

To the extent possible, we prefer the documents in electronic format. Documents that cannot be sent in electronic format should be sent to Corporate Europe Observatory, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels.

Should my request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions referring to specific exemptions in the regulation. Also I expect the partial release of documents, in case of partial exemption according to article 4.6.

I reserve the right to appeal.

Please confirm having received this application. I look forward to your reply within 15 business days, according to the regulation.

Thank you for your assistance.

Belen Balanya
Corporate Europe Observatory
Note: See Regulation (EC) n. 1367/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on the application of the provisions of the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters to Community Institutions and bodies (hereinafter "Aarhus Regulation")