Transparency register assessment conditionality

Peter made this access to documents request to Secretariat General of the European Commission as part of a batch sent to 3 authorities

Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.

Waiting for an internal review by Secretariat General of the European Commission of their handling of this request.

Dear Madam, Sir,

Article 14 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 20 May 2021 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on a mandatory transparency register says: "The signatory institutions shall assess the implementation of measures taken pursuant to Article 5 by 2 July 2022, and regularly thereafter, with a view, where appropriate, to making recommendations on the improvement and reinforcement of such measures."

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 documents related to the internal assessment of the implementation of Article 5 measures, and any recommendations

Please note I prefer to receive the documents in digital format, not by physical mail.

Sincerely,
Peter Teffer
Follow the Money
Overtoom 197
1054 HT Amsterdam
The Netherlands

SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Secretariat General of the European Commission

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your e-mail of 04/07/2022. We hereby acknowledge receipt of
your application for access to documents, which was registered on
04/07/2022 under reference number GESTDEM 2022/3789.

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 26/07/2022. In case this time limit needs to
be extended, you will be informed in due course.

You have lodged your application via 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.

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

We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the Commission (e.g. your private postal address).

Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.

If you do not wish that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.

For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
Privacy statement – access to documents.

Yours faithfully,

Access to documents team (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency

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Dear Madam, Sir,

I write with reference to my access to documents request which was registered on 4 July 2022 under reference number GESTDEM 2022/3789.

I confirm receipt of your reply on 22 July 2022 - and would like to commend you for replying within 15 working days. While this should be practice in all but exceptional cases, it is my experience that this time limit is often not met. Thanks.

However, please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.

I am filing a confirmatory application because I do not understand how the Commission can at the same say that it 1) "does not hold any documents that would correspond to the description given in [my] application", and that 2) "the assessment under Article 14(1) of the Interinstitutional Agreement is an exercise carried out internally in the Commission[...]", and that "this exercise is currently ongoing".

If the exercise of the assessments is indeed "ongoing", and being carried out "internally in the Commission", then some documents must exist. Unless this exercise is being carried out completely orally, in which case I would like the Commission to confirm that on the record.

What is also possible, is that by "ongoing", the Commission means that it has not started the exercise. If that is the case, please confirm this.

Otherwise, it must be the case that some documents exist, and should be identified as falling within the scope of my request.

Sincerely,
Peter Teffer

Sg-Acc-Doc@ec.europa.eu, Secretariat General of the European Commission

Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
 
 
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
 
 
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
 
 

References

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SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Secretariat General of the European Commission

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email dated 22/07/2022 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 the
Secretariat General in reply to your initial application GESTDEM
2022/3789.

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access
to documents which was registered on 24/07/2022 (Ares(2022)5336315).

Your application will be handled within 15 working days (16/08/2022). 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. Thank you for providing your contact phone number, 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,

Access to documents team (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency

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SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Secretariat General of the European Commission

1 Attachment

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

Dear Mr Teffer,

 

I refer to your email of 22 July 2022, registered on 24 July 2022, by
which you submitted a confirmatory application in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents ("Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001"), registered under reference number above.

 

Your confirmatory application is currently being handled. Unfortunately,
we have not yet been able to gather all the elements needed to carry out a
full analysis of your request and to take a final decision. Therefore, we
are not in a position to reply to your confirmatory request within the
prescribed time limit which expires on 16 August 2022. Consequently, we
have to extend this period by another 15 working days in accordance with
Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. The new deadline expires on
6 September 2022. However, I can assure you that we are doing our utmost
to provide you with a final reply within the next 15 working days.

 

I regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Mariusz Daca, Ph.D.
Deputy Head of Unit

European Commission

Secretariat General

Unit C.1 (Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents)

 

References

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1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D8B182.FAA23970
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~

Dear Mrs Daca,

I refer to your message from 16 August 2022 regarding my confirmatory application, registered on 24 July 2022 (Ares(2022)5336315).

Once again, I have to object to the Secretariat-General's use of an extension of the time limit. Once again, I refer to article 8 of Regulation 1049/2001, which clearly says that only in "exceptional cases" may the time limit be extended, and then only when "detailed reasons" are given.

The reason given for the need to extend in this case, namely that the Commission has "not yet been able to gather all the elements needed to carry out a full analysis of your request and to take a final decision" does not provide evidence that this case is "exceptional", nor does it qualify as "detailed reasons".

Sincerely,
Peter Teffer