Vice-President Timmermans' invitations to events and speaking engagements

The request was successful.

Dear Secretariat General,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting a list of, or copies of, all invitations received to attend, or speak at, an event organised by a third party, as received by Vice-President Frans Timmermans since 1 November 2014.

Additionally, I would like to request a full list of all external speaking engagements made by Vice-President Timmermans since 1 November 2014. This list should include the date and venue of the event, the host(s) and organiser(s) of the event, and the topics discussed.

Yours faithfully,

Myriam Douo
On behalf of Friends of the Earth Europe
Mundo B Building
Rue D'Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels,
Belgium
[email address]

Secretariat General of the European Commission

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Dear Ms Douo,

 

Thank you for your e-mail dated on 01/07/2016.  We hereby acknowledge
receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered
on 04/07/2016 under references numbers GESTDEM 2016/3725.

 

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
26/07/2016. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course.

 

You have lodged your application via the AsktheEU.org website. Please note
that this is a private 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 responsible Directorate-General may contact you when
handling your request pursuant to Article 6 of Regulation 1049/2001, in
order to receive a more precise explanation of the document(s) requested.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (L.N.)
[1]cid:image001.gif@01D1AAC8.E6AD8E50
European Commission
Secretariat General

Unit B4 – Transparency

 

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Secretariat General of the European Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Douo,

We refer to your e-mail  dated 01/07/2016 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on 04/07/2016 under the above mentioned
reference number.

The very wide description given in your application does not enable us to
identify the documents which would correspond to your request.

We therefore invite you, pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, to provide us with more
detailed information on the documents which you seek to obtain, such as a
specific subject matter, references, dates or periods during which the
documents would have been produced, persons or bodies who drafted the
documents etc…

If you need assistance in clarifying or specifying your application, you
can contact us:

·         by email to: SG ACCES DOCUMENTS ([1][email address])

The 15 working days the time limit for handling your application will
start running when we receive the requested clarifications.

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Yours faithfully,

 

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
European Commission
Secretariat General

Unit B4 - Transparency

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

Dear Secretariat General,

Thank you for your response.

I am afraid I do not see the lack of specificities of my request. Indeed, I have provided you with a timeframe as well as a clear description of the requested documents. In my opinion, the request is clear enough for you to provide me with the documents requested. Should you disagree, could you please give me more precision on how I should narrow the scope of my request?

Moreover, my request was twofold. I indeed had asked for a full list of all external speaking engagements made by Commissioner Hogan since 1 November 2014. This list should include the date and venue of the event, the host(s) and organiser(s) of the event, and the topics discussed. You haven’t addressed this part of my request. Could you please provide me with an answer to this part of my request as well?

Yours faithfully,

Myriam Douo

Secretariat General of the European Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Douo,

 

We thank you for your email dated 08/07/2016.

 

First of all, we would like to draw your attention on the fact that this
request for clarifications concerns your request for access to documents
GESTDEM 2016/3725 concerning Commission Vice-President Timmermans and not
Commissioner Hogan as mentioned in your email below 

("Moreover, my request was twofold. I indeed had asked for a full list of
all external speaking engagements made by Commissioner Hogan since 1
November 2014. This list should include the date and venue of the event,
the host(s) and organiser(s) of the event, and the topics discussed. You
haven’t addressed this part of my request. Could you please provide me
with an answer to this part of my request as well? .")

 

As your request potentially covers a wide range of documents, and in order
to enable us to identify the requested documents, pursuant to Article 6(2)
of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, we
would kindly ask you to please clarify the subject matter of the events
organised by third party as well as of the external speaking engagements
made by the President to which you would like to have access.

 

Be informed that the 15 working days the time limit for handling your
application will  start running when we receive the requested
clarifications.

 

Thank you in advance for your understanding.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
European Commission
Secretariat General

Unit B4 - Transparency

 

 

Dear Access to document team,

Thank you for drawing attention to my mistake and sorry about the confusion.

However, I am afraid I am not able to reduce a 2-year long period into a shorter period that would not be representative of Vice-President Timmermans' invitation and attendance to events.
I am looking for any invitation Vice-President Timmermans has received to attend or speak at an event, as well as a list of the events he did attend/Speak to.

I regret that I am not able to provide you with more detailed information on the documents I seek as this information is what I am looking for. I am therefore not able to know in advance which subject matter or third party as this is what I am seeking in this access to document request.

Yours faithfully,

Myriam Douo

Secretariat General of the European Commission

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Douo,

 

I refer to your email of 15 July 2016, through which you submit a request
for access to documents based on Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission
documents[1]^[1] ('Regulation 1049/2001').

 

You ask for access to "a list of, or copies of, all invitations received
to attend, or speak at, an event organised by a third party, as received
by Vice-President Timmermans since 1 November 2014" (treated under Gestdem
number 2016/3725).

 

After a first search for documents, it appears that around 1700 documents
were received by the First Vice-President Timmermans since the beginning
of his mandate. Based on this first estimate, it would appear that the
treatment of your request would constitute a disproportionate workload, as
indicated below.

 

The below calculation illustrates the estimation of the workload linked to
the handling of your request based on an average estimation of 1700
documents, taking into account the human resources (FTE) necessary for the
following steps in the treatment of your initial request:

 

1)     Identification of the relevant documents covered by the request
(106 working days for 1700 documents).  For each document the following
operation is to be performed, corresponding to an average of ½ hour per
document:

a.     identification and listing of the individual documents files
falling under the temporal scope of the request;

b.    extraction and printing;

c.     in depth scan of the document's content;

d.    Redaction of the information falling out of the scope of your
request and personal data.

2)     Double-checking of the final list of documents to be released: 3
working days,

3)     Preparation of the draft text of the reply: 3 working days,

4)     Consultation of the relevant services and cabinets regarding the
draft text – Final draft reply: 2 working days,

5)     Approval of the reply by the Director general and dispatch of the
reply: 2 working days.

In the light of the above, in order to prepare the reply to your request,
one full-time equivalent (FTE) would have to devote 116 full working days.

 

Please note that some time was already invested in the preliminary
assessment of your request and in the preparation of this proposal for a
fair solution. These come on top of the 116 working days referred to
above.

 

Therefore, I would like to propose that, in line with Article 6(3) of
Regulation 1049/2001, you specify the reason why you are interested in
obtaining access to the documents, and which (types of) documents you are
interested in in particular.

 

If, on the contrary, you wish to maintain your wide-scope request and not
identify further what type(s) of invitations you are interested in, I
propose to reduce the temporal scope of your request (i.e. 20 months, from
1 November 2014 until 1st July 2016) to a shorter timeframe of three
months of your choice.

 

Such a narrowed-down scope would cover a more manageable number of
documents including the preparation of the redacted versions thereof.

 

We would be grateful for a reply by three working days upon the receipt of
this message (02/08/2016 eob).

 

Thank you in advance.

 

BLURIOT-PUEBLA Madeleine

Cellule 'Accès aux documents'
 
European Commission
SG/B/4 - Transparence

BERL 05/315
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 296 09 97
[2][email address]

 

------------------------

[3][1]       Official Journal L 145 of 31.5.2001, p. 43.

References

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1. file:///tmp/foiextract20211201-23715-1i5wtbn#_ftn1
2. mailto:[email address]
3. file:///tmp/foiextract20211201-23715-1i5wtbn#_ftnref1

Dear Ms Bluriot-Puebla,

Thank you for your response.

The goal of my request being exactly to know which invitation First Vice-President Timmermans received and which he accepted, I do not know which invitation he received and am therefore not able to narrow down my request in this sense.

I will therefore reduce the temporal scope of my request to three months, more specifically between April and June 2016 included.

I am looking forward to receiving these documents as soon as possible.

Best regards,
Myriam Douo

Secretariat General of the European Commission

Due to the holiday period in August, some delays may occur in the
treatment of your access-to-documents request, especially where the
processing of data requires the consultation of national administrations,
external organisations or other services.

* *  *

Pendant la période des congés en août, certains retards peuvent se
produire dans le traitement de votre demande d'accès aux documents, en
particulier lorsque le traitement des données exige la consultation des
administrations nationales, d’organisations extérieures ou d’autres
services.

 

*  *  *

Während der Ferienzeit im August könnten Verzögerungen bei der Bearbeitung
Ihres Antrags auf Zugang zu Dokumenten auftreten, insbesondere wenn die
Berarbeitung die Konsultierung der nationalen Verwaltungen, externer
Organisationen oder anderer Dienststellen erforderlich macht.

 

Secretariat General of the European Commission

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Dear Mrs Douo,
 
Thank you for your reply below.
 
We will now deal with your initial request GESTDEM 2016/3725 for the
period between April and June 2016.
 
Please be informed that the 15 working days' time limit for handling your
application has been suspended until we received your reply to our fair
solution request.  The new time limit expires on 23/08/2016.
 
Best regards,
 
BLURIOT-PUEBLA Madeleine
Cellule 'Accès aux documents'
 
European Commission
SG/B/4 - Transparence

BERL 05/315
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 296 09 97
[1][email address]
 
 

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Dear Ms BLURIOT-PUEBLA,

Thank you for your response.

The goal of my request being exactly to know which invitation Vice-President Timmermans received and which he accepted, I do not know which invitation he received and am therefore not able to narrow down my request in this sense.

I will therefore reduce the temporal scope of my request to three months, more specifically between April and June 2016 included.

I am looking forward to receiving these documents as soon as possible.
Best regards,
Myriam Douo

Secretariat General of the European Commission

2 Attachments

Dear Mrs Douo,

 

Please find attached a letter concerning your confirmatory application for
access to documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Gestdem 2016/3725

 

Yours sincerely,

 

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

Unit B4 - Transparency

 

References

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Secretariat General of the European Commission

2 Attachments

Dear Mrs Douo,

 

Please find attached a letter concerning your application for access to
documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - Gestdem 2016/3725

 

Yours sincerely,

 

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

Unit B4 - Transparency

 

References

Visible links

Secretariat General of the European Commission

2 Attachments

Dear Ms Douo,

 

Please find attached the reply to your request for access to documents
pursuant to Regulation (EC) N° 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents with ref. GestDem
2016/3725 and its annex.

 

This letter is only sent by email.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (PS)

European Commission

Secretariat General

Unit SG.B4 – Transparency