Work with Palantir

European Court of Auditors did not have the information requested.

Mathias Schindler

Dear European Court of Auditors,

Palantir Technologies, Inc. is a private company supplying products and services.

I am asking for any information related to palantir and its products and services, including

a) meeting records (drafts, memos, invitations, appointments, cancellations) involving Palantir officials and people representing Palantir and their interests

b) correspondence (including within the [Authority name] and with the European institutions concerning Palantir technologies and / or its products and services or the regulatory environment of the EU that affects their products and services. This may include policy papers, consultation input, memoranda or any other form of information.

c) invoices, tenders, service agreements, purchases, orders, procurement documents, offers etc. concerning products and services using Palantir Technologies.

Please do not transfer this request to another Autority, this is a request specifically for you. Do not exclude short-lived documents or documents considered to be unimportant under archiving rules.

Please ensure that information that is considered to be excempt for access for this request is not automatically deleted within to make sure that subsequent confirmatory applications and legal appeals as well as Ombudsman office inquiries can still access and assess them.

Yours faithfully,

Mathias Schindler

ECA-INFO, European Court of Auditors

Dear Mr Schindler,

 

Thank you for contacting the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

 

As a foreword, please note that Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public
access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents is not
applicable to our institution. Instead, the rules on public access to ECA
documents are set out in [1]Decision No 12/2005 of the Court of Auditors
regarding public access to Court documents (as amended by Court Decision
No 14/2009, consolidated version published in OJ C 67/1 of 20.03.2009).
More particularly, as the data you refer to in your e-mail constitute
“documents” pursuant to Article 3(a) of said decision,  your request has
been processed in accordance with Article 6 thereof. 

 

Regarding your query, we understand that you are looking for various types
of information and documents relating to a private company , namely
Palantir Technologies Inc., which you assume that it is in the ECA’s
possession.

 

In this regard, we would like to draw your attention to the following:

 

As a general rule, any underlying information used for the preparation of
the ECA’s audit observations is deemed confidential by virtue of Article
4.2 of the aforementioned ECA Decision;  such rule has its foundation in
the provisions of Articles 258 and 259 of the Financial Regulation
2018/1046 applicable to the general budget of the Union, setting out that
ECA’s observations are and shall remain confidential.

That same rule may further apply to any other type of data, which, though
not concerning an ECA’s auditee, may nonetheless concern third parties
with which the ECA may have a professional relationship. At that instance,
the ECA would also have to treat all such third party information as
confidential and not allow their disclosure, by virtue of overriding,
applicable personal data protection rules.

 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the ECA may consider deciding, by
derogation from Article 4.2 and by application of Article 4.8 of said
decision, to allow access to a document where there is an overriding
public interest in its disclosure. A similar consideration may be further
reserved in cases, where the request for access is made by a beneficiary
who has been subject to the Court’s audit, is directly concerned by such
observations and has a personal interest in receiving such confidential
information, in order, for instance, to defend himself/herself, should
he/she be subject to proceedings for recovery of Union funds.

 

Based on the information available to us, we were not able to identify at
this stage any documents or information related to the above-mentioned
company. More importantly, we were not able to identify the presence of
any legitimate interest on your side in relation to the disclosure of the
same. Indeed, after careful analysis and consideration of your case, we
note that you have not adduced any proof as to how and whether the
disclosure of the requested documents to you would serve the interest of
protecting the transparency and public control of the ECA’s activity, or
how this would be otherwise duly justified because of your personal
involvement and direct concern thereby.

 

As a result, we regret to inform you that, under the circumstances, we
cannot process your request any further at this stage. However, should you
be able to revert with additional information,  managing to substantiate
that your request falls under one of the grounds exposed here above
justifying a derogation to the rule, the ECA may review its decision and
carry out a more detailed search in its files, in order to see whether and
how it can help you.

Please note that in accordance with Article 7 of the ECA’s Decision, you
can address a request for reconsideration to the ECA’s President, within
15 working days of receiving the ECA’s reply.

 

Kind regards,

ECA-INFO

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Information Desk

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-----Original Message-----
From: Mathias Schindler <[FOI #8122 email]>
Sent: Monday 8 June 2020 10:50
To: ECA-INFO <[ECA request email]>
Subject: access to documents request - Work with Palantir

 

Dear European Court of Auditors,

 

Palantir Technologies, Inc. is a private company supplying products and
services.

 

I am asking for any information related to palantir and its products and
services, including

 

a) meeting records (drafts, memos, invitations, appointments,
cancellations)  involving Palantir officials and people representing
Palantir and their interests

 

b) correspondence (including within the [Authority name] and with the
European institutions concerning Palantir technologies and / or its
products and services or the regulatory environment of the EU that affects
their products and services. This may include policy papers, consultation
input, memoranda or any other form of information.

 

c) invoices, tenders,  service agreements, purchases, orders, procurement
documents, offers etc. concerning products and services using Palantir
Technologies.

 

Please do not transfer this request to another Autority, this is a request
specifically for you. Do not exclude short-lived documents or documents
considered to be unimportant under archiving rules.

 

Please ensure that information that is considered to be excempt for access
for this request is not automatically deleted within to make sure that
subsequent confirmatory applications and legal appeals as well as
Ombudsman office inquiries can still access and assess them.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Mathias Schindler

 

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This is a request for access to information under Article 15 of the TFEU
and, where applicable, Regulation 1049/2001 which has been sent via the
AsktheEU.org website.

 

Please kindly use this email address for all replies to this request:
[7][FOI #8122 email]

 

If [8][ECA request email] is the wrong address for information requests
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This message and all replies from European Court of Auditors will be
published on the AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our
dedicated page for EU public officials at
[10]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

 

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

 

 

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