Esta es la versión HTML de un fichero adjunto a una solicitud de acceso a la información 'Precisions needed about EC programmes in which UK universities and colleges where involved in 2014'.



 
Ref. Ares(2015)5392093 - 26/11/2015
EUROPEAN COMMISSION 
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR RESEARCH & INNOVATION 
  
Directorate J - Common Support Centre 
  J.1 - Common Legal Support Service 
The Head of Unit 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Brussels, 
 
            
To: Laura Motet 
                                                           Grimmstrasse 10A 
10967 Berlin, Germany 
By registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt 
      
 
 
Advance 
copy 
by 
email: 
 
                                                                   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx 
 
Dear Madam, 
Subject:  Your application for access to documents, reference GestDem 
No 2015/5554 

We refer to your e-mail dated 7 October 2015 in which you make a request for 
access to documents, registered on 14 October 2015 under the above mentioned 
reference number. 
Please note that we have limited the scope of your request to grants funded under 
the Horizon 2020 and FP7 programmes because they are within the remits of DG 
RTD. We have noticed that you sent a similar request for information to other 
services of the Commission and we hope that you have received a reply which 
addresses all the other grants and studies which are mentioned in your list, but do 
not relate to FP7 or Horizon 2020. 
 
1.- We regret to inform you that  after contacting the operational services in charge 
of the payments for the projects concerned, no documents were found that would 
correspond to the description given in your application.  
This is explained by the fact that in on-going multi-beneficiary FP7 and Horizon 
2020 grants the Commission makes payments only to the project co-ordinator who 
afterwards distributes the payments to the beneficiaries within the consortium. The 
 
Commission Européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111 
Office: ORBN 10/131 - Tel. direct line +32 229-61073 
 
xxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx 
 

Commission does not have information on precise sums given by the project co-
ordinator to the beneficiaries. The Commission is aware about costs claimed by the 
beneficiaries only after the end of the grants; even for these cases, the payments 
linked to these costs are not refunded directly by the Commission to the 
beneficiaries, but paid to the project co-ordinator, who later distributes them among 
the other partners in the consortium according to their own agreements. 
For on-going mono-beneficiary FP7 and Horizon 2020 grants, there is only one 
beneficiary, and therefore the payment is direct, but the precise sums given by the 
Commission to the beneficiary are known also only after the end of the project, 
because it is the moment when the EU contribution per partner, based on costs 
actually incurred and approved by the Commission, is known.  
The only information that is available for on-going mono or multi-beneficiary FP7 
and Horizon 2020 grants is the estimated EU contribution per beneficiaries. 
However, this is only an estimation, the precise sums received in reality by the 
beneficiaries can be different provided that they remain within the maximum EU 
contribution for the grant. In principle, the estimated EU contribution per 
beneficiaries in FP7 and Horizon 2020 is published on CORDIS (see for example 
the project COMPARE http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/194068_en.html, you can 
find the information under the name of each participants in the grant).   
 
2.- Following this, and given that no such documents have been identified, the 
Commission is not in a position to handle your request as a request for access to 
documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. As specified in Article 2(3) of 
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the right of access as defined in that Regulation 
applies only to existing documents in possession of the institution.  
 
3.- Although the Commission is not in a position to handle your request as a request 
for access to documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, we understand that 
you would like to obtain as much information as possible on this issue.  Therefore 
we have decided to treat your request as a request for information under the Code of 
Good Administrative Behaviour. 
We are now compiling by ourselves the 
information we have received from the research DGs and EAs and preparing a 
harmonized reply on behalf of all the research family, containing information about 
the estimated EU contribution to the selected UK universities. We expect to be able 
to send you this information in the coming days. 
If in addition you are interested to know about the EU contribution linked to the 
costs claimed by the UK universities in closed grants (as mentioned above, these are 
the only ones for which we could retrieve actual data), please be aware that this will 
concern only a small number of the research projects mentioned in your list. If 
nevertheless you are interested in this, please let us know it and we will try to 
collect and provide you with this additional information. 
If you are not satisfied with our reply to your access to documents request, you are 
entitled, in conformity with Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, to make a 
confirmatory application requesting the Commission to review this position 
concerning access to documents. 



Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days upon 
receipt of this letter to the Secretary-General of the Commission at the following 
address: 
European Commission 
Secretary-General 
Transparency unit SG-B-4 
BERL 5/327 
B-1049 Bruxelles 
or by email to: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx 
 
Yours faithfully, 
 
[e-Signed
Liliane De Wolf 

Electronically signed on 26/11/2015 17:59 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563