Dear Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents, note meetings which contain the following information:

For the period between November 2014 and March 2019:

- List of lobby meetings held with your DG, with Microsoft or its intermediaries. The list should include: date, individuals attending + organisational affiliation, the issues discussed,
- Minutes and other reports of these meetings
- All correspondence including attachments (i.e. any emails, correspondence or telephone call notes) between your DG (including the Commissioner and the Cabinet) and Amazon or any intermediaries representing its interests.
- All documents prepared for the meetings and exchanged in the course of the meetings between both parties.

Yours faithfully,

Laura Kayali
POLITICO
Rue de la Loi 62, 1040 Bruxelles, Belgium

Dear Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union,

I obviously meant:

- All correspondence including attachments (i.e. any emails, correspondence or telephone call notes) between your DG (including the Commissioner and the Cabinet) and *Microsoft* or any intermediaries representing its interests.

Yours faithfully,

Laura Kayali
POLITICO
Rue de la Loi 62, 1040 Bruxelles

Estabilidad Financiera, Servicios Financieros y Unión de los Mercados de Capitales

Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
 
 
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
 
 
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
 
 

References

Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...

ve_sg.accessdoc (SG), Estabilidad Financiera, Servicios Financieros y Unión de los Mercados de Capitales

1 Adjuntos

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Ares(2019)1579620 - Re: access to documents request - Interactions with
Microsoft - Gestdem 2019/1356

Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG FISMA request email]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG FISMA request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Madam,

 

Thank you for your e-mail dated 08/03/2019. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on
08/03/2019 under reference number GestDem 2019/1356.

 

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 29/03/2019. 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 third-party 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 private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the European Commission. For further information
on your rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.

 

We understand that the third party running that website usually publishes
the content of applicants’ correspondence with the European Commission on
that website. This includes the personal data that you may have
communicated to the European Commission (e.g. your private postal
address).

 

Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.

 

If you do not wish your correspondence with the European Commission to be
published on the AsktheEU.org website, you can provide us with an
alternative, private e-mail address for further correspondence.

 

In that case, the European Commission will send all future electronic
correspondence addressed to you only to that private address.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (GD)

 

[6]cid:image001.png@01D45409.F767C980

European Commission

Secretariat-General

SG C.1

[7][email address]

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Kayali <[8][FOI #6585 email]>
Sent: Friday, March 8, 2019 3:39 PM
To: SG ACCES DOCUMENTS <[9][email address]>
Subject: Re: access to documents request - Interactions with Microsoft

Dear Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union,

I obviously meant:

- All correspondence including attachments (i.e. any emails,
correspondence or telephone call notes) between your DG (including the
Commissioner and the Cabinet) and *Microsoft* or any intermediaries
representing its interests.

Yours faithfully,

Laura Kayali
POLITICO
Rue de la Loi 62, 1040 Bruxelles

-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Kayali <[10][FOI #6585 email]>
Sent: Friday, March 8, 2019 3:14 PM
To: SG ACCES DOCUMENTS <[11][email address]>
Subject: access to documents request - Interactions with Microsoft

Dear Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in
Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents, note meetings which
contain the following information:

For the period between November 2014 and March 2019:

- List of lobby meetings held with your DG, with Microsoft or its
intermediaries. The list should include: date, individuals attending +
organisational affiliation, the issues discussed,
- Minutes and other reports of these meetings
- All correspondence including attachments (i.e. any emails,
correspondence or telephone call notes) between your DG (including the
Commissioner and the Cabinet) and Amazon or any intermediaries
representing its interests.
- All documents prepared for the meetings and exchanged in the course of
the meetings between both parties.

Yours faithfully,

Laura Kayali
POLITICO
Rue de la Loi 62, 1040 Bruxelles, Belgium

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

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:
[12][FOI #6585 email]

If [13][DG FISMA request email] is the wrong address for information
requests to Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets
Union, please tell the AsktheEU.org team on email [14][email address]

This message and all replies from Financial Stability, Financial Services
and Capital Markets Union will be published on the AsktheEU.org website.
For more information see our dedicated page for EU public officials at
[15]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

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

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D4D5CB.ED89B790
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...
7. mailto:[email address]
8. mailto:[FOI #6585 email]
9. mailto:[email address]
10. mailto:[FOI #6585 email]
11. mailto:[email address]
12. mailto:[FOI #6585 email]
13. mailto:[DG FISMA request email]
14. mailto:[AsktheEU.org contact email]
15. https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers

ocultar partes citadas

Estabilidad Financiera, Servicios Financieros y Unión de los Mercados de Capitales

6 Adjuntos

Dear Madam,

 

Please find attached a letter concerning your requests for access to
documents registered under Gestdem references 2019/1316, 2019/1317,
2019/1321, 2019/1323, 2019/1326, 2019/1351, 2019/1355, 2019/1356,
2019/1357, 2019/1360, 2019/1387, 2019/1389, 2019/1391, 2019/1395,
2019/1407, 2019/1413, 2019/1433, 2019/1475, 2019/1479, 2019/1482,
2019/1485, 2019/1486, 2019/1517, 2019/1534 and 2019/1535.

This letter will also be sent to you by delivery service.
Yours faithfully,

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (GD)

 

[1]cid:image001.png@01D45409.F767C980

European Commission

Secretariat-General

SG C.1

[2][email address]

 

 

References

Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]

BOULOUQUE Didier, Estabilidad Financiera, Servicios Financieros y Unión de los Mercados de Capitales

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping

[4]Ares(2019)2256021 - Your request for access to documents our ref
gestdem 2019/1356

Sent by BOULOUQUE Didier (FISMA) <[email address]>. All
responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par BOULOUQUE Didier (FISMA) <[email address]>.
Toutes les réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Ms Kayali,

 

We refer to your e-mail dated 8 March  2019 in which you make a request
for access to documents, registered on 8 March 2019 under the above
mentioned reference number. Your application is currently being handled.
However, we will not be in a position to complete the handling of your
application within the time limit of 15 working days, which expires on 29
March 2019. Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working
days in accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
regarding public access to documents. The new time limit expires on 24
April 2019.  We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this
may cause.

Yours sincerely,

European Commission
Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and
Capital Markets Union 
Unit A2  "Policy planning and implementation, Inter-institutional
relations"
1049 Brussels, Belgium

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D4E61F.6765DA90
2. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
3. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
4. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...

Dear Ms. Olivan Aviles, dear Secretariat General,

Thank you for getting back to me and for proposing a solution.
However, I’m afraid I am not in the position to accept any of the solutions put forward, which I don't consider "fair."

1) First of all, I would like to state that my decision to file 24 separate requests to various Directorates-General was not a covert attempt to circumvent the rules set in Regulation 1049/2001, but a deliberate choice that responds to rather basic knowledge of how EU policy and decision making works. As you have noted, all of my requests concern interactions (including documents exchanged and generated for the purpose of these interactions) between a number of DGs and two stakeholders: Amazon and Microsoft.

Filing these requests separately was a deliberate choice as:
- Each DG holds meetings with stakeholders independently and at differentiated times.
- It is also safe to assume that each DG has access to their own set of documents, including those that would fall under the scope of my request.

Due to these two rather uncontroversial assertions, it would - and does - makes sense for me to file not “seemingly”, but effectively separate requests to each of the Commission DGs. I would also assume that my two points, stated above, about differentiated approaches to stakeholder meetings among DGs also entail differentiated ways of handling my requests. This means that it is not reasonable to expect each and every DG will need to undergo the same process - the 13 points listed by the Commission - in order to respond to my requests. Some DGs will identify more documents than others, some of these documents will be more sensitive than others, and some might not hold documents at all. At the same time, some DGs might have more staff dedicated to access to documents purposes than others, which would result in differentiated levels of effort time-wise and human resource-wise.

2) Second, I would like to argue that whether my and other requests were or were not filed as a result of a “coordinated action” is not incumbent in this case. The case law cited by the Commission applies to one single actor - one requester - splitting various requests. As I have explained above, my own individual decision to split requests is entirely justified and reasonable. In regards to possible “coordinated action” between me and other requesters, I would like to underline that it would not, in any case, fall under the scope of the cited General Court jurisprudence. It would, however, fall under the scope of Article 12 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which grants EU civil society the right to assemble and associate in order to work together, in a coordinated manner, for instance, to advance a political and civil matter such as transparency of EU institutions.
I would also like to note that as a result of the Commission’s conviction that my requests and other requests are “coordinated”, the Commission has taken into account in its calculations documents that do not fall under the scope of my request. If I filed requests regarding Amazon and Microsoft it is because I am interested in the interactions between EU institutions and these two stakeholders. If I didn’t include other stakeholders, such as Google or Facebook, it is because I am not interested in documents related to these other stakeholders. In its proposed solutions, the Commission is adding to its calculation of the workload my own requests will require an additional workload that I never requested, and using this as an argument to impose further restrictions to my own requests. I find this treatment unfair.

3) Third, I would like to remind the Commission that its handling of my requests is out of line with the Commission’s own - and other EU bodies’ - good practice when it comes to handling wide-scoped requests. It is indeed common practice within Commission departments, such as its Legal Service, to accept solutions such as, instead of reducing the scope of the initial request, splitting the request into various individual requests to be processed separately and consecutively. Examples of such solutions having been reached can be found here, in the case of the Commission’s Legal Service: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/docu... and here, in the case of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/sirs I believe such a solution would be much more reasonable and adequate than the ones proposed by the Commission, which all:
- treat my separate requests to separate DGs in a unified manner, which I do not consider in line with the principle of good administration as per mi first set of arguments;
- treat my requests as a group including other people’s requests, which I do not consider in line with the principle of good administration as per mi second set of arguments;
and - would not be consistent with the Commission’s own good practice which to date has indeed been in line with the principle of good administration, as per my third set of arguments.

4) Fourth, in regards to the Commission’s request that I “specify the objective” of my requests and I “specify the interest in the documents requested”, I would like to state that the content and the wording of my initial requests are self-explanatory: I am interesting in knowing about the interactions between Commission branches and Amazon and Microsoft, for the sake of knowing about the interactions between Commission branches and Amazon and Microsoft, as I believe this matter is in the public interest. The address I gave you - POLITICO - also makes it clear who I work for and what my day job is.

5) I would like to point to the fact that the solutions proposed by the Commission are based on the meetings that have already been published in the Transparency Register. This would considerably limit the scope of my request, given that - as it is public knowledge - many stakeholder interactions take place with middle and low-level Commission officials who are not covered by the Transparency Register. Therefore, and in light of the arguments stated above, I reiterate that I am not in the position to accept the solutions put forward by the Commission, as I consider them unfair in nature.

6) I believe the arbitrary five working days deadline you gave me to get back to you is also unfair. Your institution has 15 working days to deal with requests, I don't see why the European Commission could "unilaterally restrict the scope of my application" after only five days without reply.

Instead, I believe that a fair solution - which I am willing to debate and reach - would require an agreement from the Commission on these two basis:

1. that my requests be processed individually by each of the DGs I initially filed the requests to, with which I would be willing to find individual fair solutions depending on the number of documents identified by each DG, and the workload that my request would require from each DG individually.

2. that my requests be treated separately from any other requests, as similar as they might be, filed previously or simultaneously. I am only interested in documents related to Amazon and Facebook, and the way my requests are handled should reflect that limitation.

Would the European Commission - and its DGs - agree on these two basis, I would of course be willing to reduce and/or limit the scope of my request per individual DG, if the situation within a DG would require to do so. On the other hand, I can already agree to limit the intermediaries I am interested in to law firms and/or consultants directly representing Amazon and Microsoft in meetings.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Laura Kayali

Estabilidad Financiera, Servicios Financieros y Unión de los Mercados de Capitales

Dear Ms Kayali,

 

We refer to your e-mail dated 8 March  2019 in which you make a request
for access to documents, registered on 8 March 2019 under the above
mentioned reference number. Your application is currently being handled.
However, we will not be in a position to complete the handling of your
application within the time limit of 15 working days, which expires on 24
April 2019. Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working
days in accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
regarding public access to documents. The new time limit expires on 16 May
2019.  We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may
cause.

Yours sincerely,

European Commission
Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and
Capital Markets Union 
Unit A2  "Policy planning and implementation, Inter-institutional
relations"
1049 Brussels, Belgium

Estabilidad Financiera, Servicios Financieros y Unión de los Mercados de Capitales

3 Adjuntos

Dear Ms Kayali,

 

Please find attached a response to your request for access to documents
registered on 08/03/2019 under the 2019/1356 reference number.

 

In addition, the response will be sent to you by a registered letter.

 

Kind regards,

 

Unit A2

DG FISMA – Investment and company reporting
Unit A2 - Policy planning and implementation, inter-institutional
relations
Rue de Spa, 2; B-1000 – Brussels (Belgium)