Lobby meetings on TTIP negotiations

La solicitud fue parcialmente exitosa.

Dear Trade,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, we are requesting the following documents:
- a list of meetings on the topic of the EU-US trade deal / TTIP between members of the DG Trade TTIP negotiating team [1] and interest representatives [2] between 1 November 2014 and today.

We would like the list to include the following information:
Date of the meeting,
Name and job title of the European Commission officials that were present (e.g. head of unit, etc.)
Names of interest representatives (company/organisation name) present at the meeting,
Names of the lobbyist(s) present,
The sector they represented (business, NGOs, academia, think tanks as per categories of EU Transparency Register if they are registered),
[1] excluding the European Commissioner, her Cabinet and the Director-General
[2] including companies, consultancies and law firms, trade/business/professional associations, think tanks and NGOs

Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Vicky Cann
CEO
Rue d'Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels

Dear Ms Cann,

 

Thank you for your e-mail.  We hereby acknowledge receipt of your
application for access to documents, which was registered on 30/06/2016
under reference number GestDem 2016/3638.

 

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
22/07/2016. 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 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.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

DG TRADE

 

 

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Dear Trade,

Please can you update me on the status of this request please? It is now substantially overdue. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Ms Cann,

We are finalising your reply. The work advances slowly as many colleagues are absent at the moment.

Please accept our apologies for the delay.

Best regards,
DG TRADE

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3 Adjuntos

Dear Ms Cann,

 

Please find enclosed our reply to your below request (registered as
2016/3638) and the attached document.

 

We would like to ask you to please acknowledge the receipt of this email
and the attachments by return message.

 

Best regards,

 

Access to Documents

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/trade/images/ec-logo...
European Commission
DG TRADE

 

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Dear Trade,

Thanks for the reply to GestDem 2016/3638.

Please can you confirm that the list you have sent is not all stakeholder meetings held by DG Trade on TTIP, but specifically a list of all stakeholder meetings held by members of the TTIP negotiating team specifically, which was what was requested?

Thanks in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Ms Cann,

We confirm that the list we sent you on 31 August 2016 is a list of DG TRADE meetings with external stakeholders on TTIP. Normally the DG TRADE staff participating in these meetings would also be involved in the TTIP negotiations.

Best regards,
DG TRADE

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Dear Trade,

Thank you for the reply. Does it also include any meetings held by the commissioner, cabinet members and the director-general?

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Ms Cann,

 

DG TRADE meetings means the services of the DG, not the commissioner or
the cabinet. Furthermore, in your request you indicated as follows (in
footnote 1):  "[1] excluding the European Commissioner, her Cabinet and
the Director-General".

 

Please note that the meetings of Mr Demarty, commissioner Malmström and
her cabinet members with organisations and self-employed individuals
(since Dec 2014) are publicly available:

 

Director-General Mr Demarty:

[1]http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiati...

 

Commissioner Malmström:

[2]http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiati...

 

Cabinet members:

[3]http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiati...

 

Best regards,

DG TRADE

 

 

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Dear Trade,

Thank you for the reply. I am aware that the meetings of the commissioner, director general and cabinet are published online. My question was aimed at establishing the precise scope of the information that you have sent me, as it does not specifically clarify which staff's meetings are included.

Once again, please can you specifically confirm if the list you have sent me includes, or excludes, the lobby meetings held by the commissioner, her cabinet and the director general?

Thank you in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Trade,

I have not received a reply from DG Trade to my earlier message of 17 October. I have now looked in more detail at the PDF sent and have found various 'discrepancies' so would be grateful for further clarification about what is contained in the PDF sent.

As you know, I asked for a list of TTIP lobby meetings which did not include the declared lobby meetings on TTIP held by the commissioner, her cabinet and the director general. I have previously tried to get a clarification from DG Trade as to whether or not those declared meetings are included in the list, or not, and to date, I do not feel that I have received a precise answer.

The PDF sent by DG Trade does appear to contain some of the meetings on TTIP held by the commissioner, her cabinet and the director general, but not all.

For example:
The ETUC meeting (15/1/2015), the Eurofer meeting (5/3/2015), and the European Heart Network meeting (2/2/2015) are included on both the PDF and the online list of Commissioner Malmstrom's list, but, for example her 4/3/2015 meeting with Scania is not included in the PDF.

For Commissioner Malmstrom's Cabinet, the IBM meeting of 21/1/2015 is included in the PDF and the online list, yet the meeting on the same day with Vereinigung der österreichischen Industrie - Industriellenvereinigung (IV) is not listed on the PDF, but is on the online list.

Finally, for the Director-General, the meeting with Eric Besson Consulting on TTIP on 26/1/2015 is not on the PDF but is online, while the Coalition of Services Industries (CSI) meeting on 13/4/2015 is on both the PDF and online.

I wonder what is the explanation for this? I can think of at least two:
- officials who were not the commissioner, her cabinet and the director general also attended meetings at which the commissioner, her cabinet or the director general were present, hence the meeting is included in the PDF, which otherwise is restricted to the TTIP lobby meetings held by non-senior staff
- the PDF includes a random selection of TTIP lobby meetings, including some held by the commissioner, her cabinet and / or the director general, and in that case, is not what I asked for.

Undoubtedly there are other possibilities too.

I would be grateful if you could precisely clarify what is and is not included in the PDF list provided by DG Trade.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Ms Cann,

Thank you for your message and apologies for overlooking the previous one. We are looking into the matter you raise and will get back to you in the course of next week.

Have a nice weekend!

Best regards,
DG TRADE

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Dear Trade,

Thanks for the reply above. I look forward to the substantive reply.

I have been looking again at the list. The following organisations listed are unclear acronyms with multiple possibilities. I would be very grateful if you could provide more precise detail about these organisations:

328 14/01/15 ITIC
348 28/01/15 AECA event in Berlin
349 28/01/15 TPN Roundtable
356 09/02/15 FFIC
357 09/02/15 EPO
373 02/03/15 EGA
377 04/03/15 EESC
445 22/04/15 ACEA, Alliance
451 28/04/15 Sparkassen
454 28/04/15 AECA event in Berlin
474 26/05/15 EGA
501 19/06/15 BIS
512 25/06/15 Sparkassen
528 07/07/15 RGIT
536 13/07/15 FCA US LLC
537 15/07/15 UMTRI
538 16/07/15 ECSA
570 16/09/15 EESC
604 16/10/15 Meeting with EGA on SPC, TTIP, GMP
615 03/11/15 UK IPO
637 09/12/15 EGA and Fresenius on Generic pharmaceuticals

Furthermore, the following listings do not provide the detail of specific organisations. I would be grateful if you could provide names of the specific organisations concerned:

342 23/01/15 UK Law Societies
379 04/03/15 Visit to the French textile industry
367 24/02/15 Polish cosmetics industry
370 26/02/15 Pharmaceutical Sector
361 13/02/15 Meeting on EU-US Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications for Architects
376 03/03/15 TTIP and SMEs conference in Rome, Italy
391 12/03/15 Conference with health care industry
406 23/03/15 AEPL-COM Colloquium on TTIP
417 26/03/15 TTIP conference and meetings, Budapest
420 30/03/15 TTIP conference, Coburg
429 14/04/15 Newspaper publishers from Hessen
436 15/04/15 Italian SME and Italian delegation of EPP
439 16/04/15 Chemicals industry
447 23/04/15 US Soy Bean industry
461 07/05/15 Panel discussion in Berlin
464 07/05/15 Meeting on sweetcorn and TTIP
469 19/05/15 TTIP meetings in Munich
470 20/05/15 Cosmetics
475 26/05/15 Stakeholder debate on regulatory convergence aspects of the TTIP
476 26/05/15 TTIP and SME conference in Milan, Italy
478 27/05/15 Stakeholder meeting on TTIP and Health
483 01/06/15 Polish Car industry
484 01/06/15 EU Conference on endocrine disruptors
485 02/06/15 TTIP outreach activities in Berlin, Hildesheim and Hannover
486 05/06/15 Green Week Trade and Biodiversity event

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you very much in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Ms Cann,

 

With reference to your message of 1 November 2016, the comprehensive list
of 640 meetings, that you received as a reply to your request number
2016/3638, contains meetings of DG Trade staff below director general
level with stakeholders on TTIP in the given timeframe. While the aim was
to have a complete list of TTIP lobby meetings outside the publicly
available records, it seems that in some listed meetings the Commissioner
Malmström, her Cabinet Members or our Director General were indeed
present. We can confirm that our list is not a random selection of
meetings.

 

Regarding your further request for information that we received on 10
November 2016, please find below clarifications of the acronyms in your
first list.

 

328         14/01/15              ITIC – Information Technology Industry
Council

348         28/01/15              AECA event in Berlin - American European
Community Association

349         28/01/15              TPN - Transatlantic Policy Network
Roundtable on TTIP
([1]http://www.europa-nu.nl/id/vjzdj9xymcz2/...)

356         09/02/15              FFIC - French Federation on Insurance
Companies (FFIC)

357         09/02/15              EPO – European Patent Office

373         02/03/15              EGA - Medicines For Europe (formerly
EGA)

377         04/03/15              EESC – European Economic and social
Committee

445         22/04/15              ACEA, Alliance - European Automobile
Manufacturers' Association

451         28/04/15              Sparkassen - Deutscher Sparkassen- und
Giroverband

454         28/04/15              AECA event in Berlin - American European
Community Association

474         26/05/15              EGA - Medicines For Europe (formerly
EGA)

501         19/06/15              BIS - UK Department for Business,
Innovation & Skills

512         25/06/15              Sparkassen - Deutscher Sparkassen- und
Giroverband

528         07/07/15              RGIT - German Industry and Trade (RGIT)

536         13/07/15              FCA US LLC - formerly Chrysler Group LLC
renamed FCA US LLC

537         15/07/15              UMTRI - University of Michigan
Transportation Research Institute

538         16/07/15              ECSA - European Community Shipowners'
Associations

570         16/09/15              EESC – European Economic and social
Committee

604         16/10/15              Meeting with EGA on SPC, TTIP, GMP -
Medicines For Europe (formerly EGA)

615         03/11/15              UK IPO – Intellectual property office

637         09/12/15              EGA and Fresenius on Generic
pharmaceuticals  - Medicines For Europe (formerly EGA)

 

As for the specific organizations involved in the below meetings, we would
like you to check the reports that we have disclosed in our replies to
several access to documents requests (including to CEO 2015/5085) and that
have been made public. The documents for the other meetings that you have
listed below are currently being assessed and the batches of these replies
will be sent out as soon as they are finalized.

 

342         23/01/15              UK Law Societies – document(s) to be
assessed

379         04/03/15              Visit to the French textile industry –
disclosed 2015/5085

367         24/02/15              Polish cosmetics industry – disclosed
2015/5085

370         26/02/15              Pharmaceutical Sector - disclosed
2015/5085

361         13/02/15              Meeting on EU-US Mutual Recognition of
Professional Qualifications for Architects – document(s) to be assessed

376         03/03/15              TTIP and SMEs conference in Rome, Italy
– document(s) to be assessed

391         12/03/15              Conference with health care industry –
disclosed 2015/5085

406         23/03/15              AEPL-COM Colloquium on TTIP – no report

417         26/03/15              TTIP conference and meetings, Budapest –
document(s) to be assessed

420         30/03/15              TTIP conference, Coburg – document(s) to
be assessed

429         14/04/15              Newspaper publishers from Hessen –
document(s) to be assessed

436         15/04/15              Italian SME and Italian delegation of
EPP – no report – participants included: Confagricoltura, Coldiretti,
Confederazione italiana agricoltori, Confindustria, MEP Sangiotto, MEP E.
Gardini

439         16/04/15              Chemicals industry – disclosed 2015/5085

447         23/04/15              US Soy Bean industry – document(s) to be
assessed

461         07/05/15              Panel discussion in Berlin – document(s)
to be assessed

464         07/05/15              Meeting on sweetcorn and TTIP –
document(s) to be assessed

469         19/05/15              TTIP meetings in Munich – document(s) to
be assessed

470         20/05/15              Cosmetics – disclosed 2015/5085

475         26/05/15              Stakeholder debate on regulatory
convergence aspects of the TTIP – disclosed 2015/5085

476         26/05/15              TTIP and SME conference in Milan, Italy
– document(s) to be assessed

478         27/05/15              Stakeholder meeting on TTIP and Health –
no report

483         01/06/15              Polish Car industry – disclosed
2015/5085

484         01/06/15              EU Conference on endocrine disruptors –
disclosed 2015/5085

485         02/06/15              TTIP outreach activities in Berlin,
Hildesheim and Hannover – document(s) to be assessed

486         05/06/15              Green Week Trade and Biodiversity event
– document(s) to be assessed

 

 

Best regards,

DG TRADE

 

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Dear Trade,

Thank you for the clarifications which I appreciate.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Trade,

Thank you for the previous replies. Please can you confirm when I will receive the final sets of documents/ information for this request?

Thanks in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Ms Cann,

Could you please clarify what you mean by "final sets of documents/information"?

Your original request 2016/3638 was closed on 31 August 2016. You have since then requested additional information on our reply which we have provided on 13 October and 18 November 2016. In our last message 13 meetings are mentioned where a report has not yet been disclosed. We will contact the unit responsible and see what is the state of play of these documents.

Best regards,
DG TRADE
Access to documents team

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Dear Trade,

Thank you for the reply. It is those outstanding documents I was asking for an update on.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Vicky Cann

Dear Ms Cann,

We are working on the remainder of the TTIP stakeholder meeting document requests as fast as we can. The work is advancing slowly as we have other large requests pending also.

Here below is the state of play on the meeting reports you referred to in your message.

342 23/01/15 UK Law Societies – document(s) to be assessed => work ongoing (will be in batch V to 2015/5085/CEO)
361 13/02/15 Meeting on EU-US Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications for Architects => released 25 Nov (batch IV to 2015/5085)
376 03/03/15 TTIP and SMEs conference in Rome, Italy => work ongoing (will be in batch VI to 2015/5085)
417 26/03/15 TTIP conference and meetings, Budapest – document(s) => released 25 Nov (batch IV to 2015/5085)
420 30/03/15 TTIP conference, Coburg – document(s) to be assessed => work ongoing (will be in batch V to 2015/5085)
429 14/04/15 Newspaper publishers from Hessen – document(s) to be assessed => work ongoing (will be in batch V to 2015/5085)
447 23/04/15 US Soy Bean industry – document(s) to be assessed => unit responsible is still assessing the document
461 07/05/15 Panel discussion in Berlin – document(s) to be assessed => work ongoing (will be in batch VI to 2015/5085)
464 07/05/15 Meeting on sweetcorn and TTIP – document(s) to be assessed => work ongoing
469 19/05/15 TTIP meetings in Munich – document(s) to be assessed => work ongoing (will be in batch VI to 2015/5085)
476 26/05/15 TTIP and SME conference in Milan, Italy => work ongoing (will be in batch VI to 2015/5085)
485 02/06/15 TTIP outreach activities in Berlin, Hildesheim and Hannover => work ongoing (will be in batch VI to 2015/5085)
486 05/06/15 Green Week Trade and Biodiversity event => unit responsible is still assessing the document.

Best regards, and Happy Holidays!
DG TRADE

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