Ref. Ares(2020)6279512 - 03/11/2020
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY
Resource management and better regulation
Better regulation
Brussels
SANTE.A.1/CF
ALVARO MERINO
Calle Jesús Goldero 19, planta 1
El Orden Mundial
28045 Madrid
Spain
By email only:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Mr Merino,
Subject:
Your access to documents request – Ref GestDem No 2020/5893
We refer to your e-mails dated 5 October 2020 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on the same day under the above-mentioned reference numbers.
We also refer to our clarification letter, sent on 12 October 2020 and to your reply of 13
October 2020.
On the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, you requested access to the following
documents:
— Documentation of meetings (minutes, drafts, memoranda, invitations, cancellations,
etc.) involving any person or institution representing the Spanish Government, in
particular the Ministry of Agriculture, but not excluding Autonomous Communities and
municipalities, and which is linked to the Farm to Fork, plant protection products, use of
pesticides and/or animal welfare since January 2018.
— Correspondence (guidance documents, reports, official letters, emails, attachments,
etc.) exchanged with any person or institution representing the Spanish Government, in
particular the Ministry of Agriculture, but not excluding Autonomous Communities and
municipalities, and which is linked to the F2F, plant protection products, pesticide use
and/or animal welfare since January 2018.
You further clarified your request providing us the following details:
I would like to clarify that I refer to any meeting in which representatives of the Spanish
Government participated, either exclusively or with more people. On the level of
government representation, they can limit the search to representatives of the national
government only (including, therefore, ministries). Finally, with regard to the topics
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
covered in the documents, in addition to the Farm to Fork, I would ask you to include the
environmental impact of pesticides and animal welfare on farms.
The handling of your request concerns a very large number of documents, which need to
be assessed individually, many of them originating from third parties or Member States.
The detailed analysis of these documents, together with the need to consult the third
parties or Member States concerned in accordance with Article 4(4) and 4(5) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, cannot be expected to be completed within the normal
time limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No1049/2001.
However, Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 also provides for a possibility to
confer with an applicant informally with a view to finding a fair solution when an
application relates to a very long document or concerns a very large number of
documents.
In accordance with the case law of the EU Courts, such a solution can only concern the
content or the number of documents requested, not the deadline for replying1. This means
that the scope of the request must be reduced in a way that would enable its processing
within the extended deadline of 15 +15 working days.
Based on the above-mentioned provision, we would kindly ask you to specify the
objective of your application and your specific interest in the documents requested2, and
whether you could narrow down the scope of your application, so as to reduce it to a
more manageable amount of documents.
In order to help you to narrow down your application, please note that the following
categories of documents have been identified as falling under the scope of your request:
1.
Farm to Fork
We have identified
5 documents concerning bilateral correspondence and meetings with
Spanish representatives (letter from Commission to all Member States, letter from the
Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, report on teleconference with
Spanish Ambassador, report on meeting with the Spanish Minister, the Country Profile
for Spain).
2.
Plant protection products
We have identified
around 90 documents divided as following:
SUD audit carried out in Spain in 2018 and also documents relating to SUD and
PPP Working group meetings which took place in 2018 and 2019: around 45
documents;
Harmonised Risk Indicators: around 20 documents;
PPP Formulation Analysis and Enforcement Working Groups: around 20
documents;
1 Judgment of the Court of Justice of 2 October 2014,Strack vEuropean Commission,C
127/13,(hereinafter referred to as the ‘Strackv Commissionjudgment’), EU:C:2014:2250, paragraphs
26-28.
2 Strackv Commissionjudgment, paragraph 28; Judgment of the General Court (then 'Court of First
Instance') of 22 May 2012,EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg vEuropean Commission, T-344/08,
EU:T:2012:242, paragraph 105.
2
3.
Use of pesticides
We have identified
around 50 documents divided as following:
Minutes from the ScoPPAFF which reflect the content of interventions of
Member States: around 10 documents.
Please not that these documents are publicly available on this website:
https://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/standing_committees/sc_phytopharmaceuticals_e
n;
Spanish comments/interventions in the Specific protection goals workshop
organized by DG Sante: around 10 documents;
Spanish comments during the Risk mitigation measures workshop: around 10
documents;
Minutes from the meeting of the Post Approval issues working group with
interventions of Spain: : around 10 documents;
BTOs from meeting with Spain on issues related to pesticides: around 10
documents.
4.
Animal welfare
We have identified
around 60 documents divided as following:
2017-6126 Audit to Spain on tail docking: around 20 documents;
2019 TAILS mission in Spain: around 10 documents;
Meetings : around 10 documents;
ES Tail docking action plan: around 10 documents;
ES annual AW reports: around 10 documents.
According to our first estimates, the handling of your requests would take
100 working
days3, broken down as follows:
- identification of the documents falling under your requests, as well as retrieval
and establishment of a complete list of the documents identified: 20 working
days;
- assessment of the content of the documents in light of the exceptions of Article 4
of Regulation 1049/2001: 15 working days:
- third-party/Member State consultations under Article 4(4) and/or 4(5) of
Regulation 1049/2001: 10 working days;
- final assessment of the documents in light of the comments received: 15 working
days;
- drafting of the reply: 5 working days;
- redaction of those parts of the documents to which one or several exceptions
apply(ies): 20 working days;
- internal approval of the draft decision on your requests: 10 working days;
- preparation of the reply and the documents for dispatch (scanning of the redacted
versions, administrative treatment,…): 5 working days.
3 Taking into account other applications for access to documents and other tasks that the staff concerned
are likely to have to deal with during the same period.
3
Please note that, according to our first estimates and considering the complexity of the
content and the need to carry out third party consultations on a large number of
documents, in this case a maximum of 60 documents can be dealt with within the
extended deadline of 30 working days, counting from the date of registration of your
reply to our clarification request.
Therefore,
we would suggest you to choose among the four categories, the sub-
categories of documents or specific topics/subjects of discussion falling within each
sub-categories you are most interested, in order to reach the total amount of 60
documents.
In order to enable us to respect the time-limits of Regulation 1049/2001, we would kindly
ask for a swift reply to the above proposal, by email within five working days at the latest
to:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
If you have any questions concerning the invitation, you can contact us at the same address.
In the absence of a reply within five working days, we will unilaterally restrict the scope of
your application to those parts that can be dealt with within the extended deadline of 30
working days, counting from the registration of your reply to our clarification request.
Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Yours faithfully,
Carmen GARAU
Head of Unit
4
Electronically signed on 01/11/2020 14:17 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482