Trade Counsellors & TTIP stakeholder meetings Washington delegation
Dear European External Action Service,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, and the code of good administrative behaviour, I am requesting documents which contain the following information from the EU Delegation in Washington:
1. minutes and other reports of the meetings of the trade
counsellors in Washington (between 21 June 2013 and today);
2. a list of meetings of staff in the Washington delegation with individual companies, industry associations, law firms, think tanks and lobby consultancies in which the TTIP negotiations were discussed (between 21 June 2013 and today);
2. minutes and other reports of these meetings.
Yours faithfully,
Pia Eberhardt
Yours faithfully,
Pia Eberhardt
Dear Sir/Madam,
This message is an acknowledgement of receipt for your requests for access
to documents under Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (which the EEAS is
also respecting).
Your request for access to documents has been registered under reference
number 2014/D175. Please refer to this number in any further
correspondence.
In accordance with the Regulation, you will receive a reply within 15
working days, ie by 14/01/2015.
Yours faithfully,
EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (AD)
[1][EEAS request email]
SG1 – Corporate Board Secretariat
References
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1. mailto:[EEAS request email]
Dear Ms Eberhardt,
Further to your request ref. D175 dated 12 December 2014 and our acknowledgement of receipt of 16 December 2014 and making use of Art 6(3) of Regulation 1049/2001, we would like to ask you whether you could please specify for point 2, what are the specific companies or sectors you are interested in?
Indeed a preliminary check of the scope of your request reveals that it is very extensive and that it would be difficult to provide you with an answer within the time limits set in Regulation 1049/2001.
We can however confirm that item 1 of your request is already being taken care of.
Thank you for your understanding,
EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
[email address]
SG1 - Corporate Board Secretariat (AD)
Dear Madams & Sirs,
thank you very much for getting back to me so quickly.
Unfortunately, I cannot further specify/ narrow the scope of my request under point 2). We are monitoring corporate lobbying in general, not limited to specific sectors or companies. So, I would appreciate if you could take all sectors and companies into account. I understand that this will be difficult in the time limits of the Regulation, but am prepared to wait a bit longer for the respective information.
I have to admit that I was not aware of the breadth of the request. The last time I requested similar information (Gestdem no. 2013/3355) I was told that there were no documents relating to meetings with industry lobby groups. On this basis, I expected my request to be rather limited.
Yours sincerely,
Pia Eberhardt
Dear Ms Eberhardt,
Further to our former exchange of mails and for what regards the second part of your request, we were informed by the EU Delegation to the US that your preceding request concerned only TABC and EABC. Your present request is much more extensive, not necessarily with regard to the number of documents we will find but with regard to the number of colleagues that will have to be consulted. This is reason why we would like to know whether there is any specific area(s) in the TTIP negotiations you are more interested in?
As a first reply to your request, you will find attached the list of EU trade counsellors meeting for the period June 21st 2013 to December 12th 2014. There are no minutes available for such meetings.
Yours faithfully
EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
[email address]
SG1 - Corporate Board Secretariat (AD)
Dear Madams and Sirs,
thank you very much for getting back to me and for publishing the list of meetings.
First of all, allow me to ask the question: are you sure that there are no minutes of these meetings available? When I sent a similar request in summer 2013, I received minutes and other reports for trade counselors meetings, up until March 2013. Not all had the title "minutes", but were clearly reports of such meetings (often in the form of an e-note). I hope you understand that I find it hard to believe that this practice stopped between March and July 2013. Could you please check again and clarify this point?
Secondly, regarding your request to narrow the second part of my request: I have to say that I am surprised that, while DG Trade in Brussels, which is in charge of the TTIP negotiations, and therefore likely a prime target of corporate lobby groups on the issue, is able to handle such an extensive request, the EU delegation in Washington is not. In addition, I would like to remind you that the Commission's new transparency initiative includes more transparency around meetings with so called stakeholders. I would therefore like to re-confirm my initial request.
Nonetheless I am happy to list the negotiation areas that we are particularly interested in, so that you can prioritise those when dealing with the request: investment, regulatory issues (particularly the horizontal aspects of regulatory cooperation as well as pesticides, chemicals, SPS and financial services), services and IPR.
Thank you in advance for considering this.
Yours sincerely,
Pia Eberhardt
Dear Ms Eberhardt,
Our services are still examining your request for access to documents, exceptionally, we need to extend the deadline for reply in accordance with Article 8.2 of Regulation 1049/2011 for the reply to be adequately validated. After your clarification request, as mentioned in our previous email it would be difficult to provide you with an answer within the time limits set in Regulation 1049/2001.
Thank you for your understanding,
Yours faithfully
EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
[email address]
SG1 - Corporate Board Secretariat (AD)
Dear Ms Eberhardt,
Would you be so kind as to be patient for a some more days for the reply to be adequately validated.
We have mentioned in previous email that a preliminary check of the scope of your request reveals that it is very extensive and that it would be difficult to provide you with an answer within the time limits set in Regulation 1049/2001.
We apologize for this delay.
Thank you for your understanding,
Yours faithfully
EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
[email address]
SG1 - Corporate Board Secretariat (AD)
Dear EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,
as I haven't heard anything from you since early February, I was wondering what the status of this request is. Can you please update me and inform me about the deadline for this request?
Yours sincerely,
Pia Eberhardt
Dear Ms Eberhardt,
We have received the documents from Washington, reply is almost ready and you will receive it probably still this week.
Yours faithfully
EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
[email address]
SG1 - Corporate Board Secretariat (AD)
Dear Ms. Eberhardt,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 12/12/2014, registered on 12/12/2014 under
reference 2014/175, in accordance with Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001
regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission
documents (that the EEAS is also respecting).
We have identified 22 documents that match your request, please find them
attached to this email.
Should you have any other request for accessing a document belonging to
the European External Action Service (which is a body distinct from the
European Commission), you can address yourself directly to our department
: [1][email address].
Yours sincerely,
EEAS ACCES TO DOCUMENTS
European External Action Service
rue de la Loi, 170 - office CHAR 15/025 - 1046 Brussels
References
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1. mailto:[email address]