Ref. Ares(2019)7120265 - 18/11/2019
Ref. Ares(2022)4615079 - 23/06/2022
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR RESEARCH & INNOVATION
The Director-General
B1
NOTE FOR THE ATTENTION OF DG R&I DIRECTORS
Subject: Handling requests for public access to documents under Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001
In view of ensuring compliance with the rules of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to documents, it is my intention to improve the way access to documents
requests are handled by our Directorate-General. This concerns notably:
(1) compliance with legal deadlines;
(2) efficient cooperation between the responsible unit(s) and the coordinating Access to
documents legal team (unit B.1);
(3) the quality of the reasoning for denying access to (parts of) documents.
These improvements aim at minimising the risk of complaints to the Ombudsman and to
the General Court. Therefore, I would like to remind you of our obligations in the treatment
of requests for public access to documents and to bring to your attention the updated
procedure to follow. It is indeed very important to avoid the risk of reputational damage in
case of late or unsubstantiated replies, while at the same time to adequately protect the
legitimate interests of the Commission and of third parties concerned by any potential
disclosure of documents.
Within our DG all requests for access to documents are handled centrally by the Access to
documents legal team in the Common Legal Support Service B.1 (FMB: RTD-ACCESS-
xxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx). If a request for access to documents is addressed directly
to an operational unit, the latter should transfer it to the Access to documents legal team as
soon as possible1. This centralised team replies to applicants based on the contribution
1 Requests out of the scope of Regulation 1049/2001, such as requests for information, continue to be
handled by the operational units, while the Access to documents team is available for advice and support.
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
received by the responsible operational services and provides guidance to the responsible
unit during the whole procedure2.
In practice, this includes the following main steps:
x The Access to documents legal team (CLSS-B1) receives and registers the requests
and identifies the responsible unit(s)/directorate with regard to documents falling
within their remit, i.e. being in their possession, having their origin in the unit or
falling otherwise under its responsibility.
x Within max. 2 working days from the allocation of the request the responsible
operational unit should designate a case handler/contact point familiar with the
subject of the request or should inform the Access to documents legal team in case it
considers it is not the responsible unit for the requested documents.
x Within max. 5 working days from the allocation of the request the responsible
operational unit should provide its contribution using the template note (see Annex
1), which includes:
a)
Establishing a list of the relevant existing documents
b)
Providing the original identified documents to the Access to documents legal
team
c)
Providing the Access to documents legal team with an opinion of the
documents (or parts) that should be released. In case it is requested that
(parts of) documents should not be released, the units need to provide
tangible arguments to support their arguments.
x Following the reception of the documents from the operational unit(s) and its
opinion on their (non-) disclosure, the Access to documents team in B1 performs the
legal assessment and prepares the reply to the applicant (this includes any potential
redaction within the document(s) concerned in case of partial disclosure). The team
also handles the intermediary correspondence with all relevant stakeholders
including third party consultations, holding replies with extension of deadlines,
requests for clarifications or narrowing wide scope requests, negotiation of fair
solutions, etc.
x The Access to documents team in B1 replies to the applicant within 15 working
days from the registration of the application. In exceptional cases (e.g. if the
application concerns a very long document or a very large number of documents),
this time limit may be extended once for further 15 working days. Therefore, it is
crucial that the deadlines to send the contributions are respected by the responsible
unit/directorate. If the operational unit cannot meet the 5 days deadline, it should
inform immediately of the reasons for the delay (such as very long document, large
number of documents, need to consult other services, etc.)
x In case of a confirmatory application3 before the Secretary General, B1 will defend
the position of our DG’s reply with input from the responsible unit(s).
2 Detailed information on access to documents can be found on the intranet page of Access to Documents -
https://myintracomm.ec.europa.eu/dg/RTD/how-we-work/procedures-and-guidelines/Pages/Public-
Access-to-Documents.aspx
3 In case of partial disclosure, no disclosure or ‘devoid of purpose’ (no documents held), the applicant is
entitled to submit a confirmatory request (an appeal) to the Secretary General.
2
Please circulate this note and procedure within your directorates to make sure that it is
applied with priority.
I expect that by following this procedure strictly we will improve the performance of our
Directorate-General on this matter.
Jean-Eric Paquet
Enclosure: Annex 1 – Template for contribution to request for public access to
documents
3
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