Brexit
Dear Secretariat General,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:
Please provide, from 2016, any memos, meeting minutes, emails, letters or other correspondence between Donald Tusk and Jean Claude Juncker regarding Brexit, namely the referendum on Britain's future relationship with the European Union.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Harris
56 Quai Rambaud, 69002 Lyon, France
Dear Mr Harris,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 23/04/2016. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on
25/04/2016 under reference number GestDem 2016/2178
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
20/05/2016. 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,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
[1]cid:image001.gif@01D191AE.44A276D0
European Commission
Secretariat General
Unit B4 - Transparency
Good morning Mr. Harris,
On behalf of Jonathan Faull, Director General UKTF, please find attached a
note for your attention on the above subject.
Regards
Marie
Marie Phillips
Office of the Director General
Task Force for Strategic Issues related to the UK Referendum
European Commission
BERL 2/319
B-1049 Brussels
Tel: + 32 2 2958658
[1][email address]
The views expressed above are the writer's alone and may not in any
circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European
Commission. If you have received this message in error, please contact
the sender by e-mail or telephone + 32 2 2990725 and then delete this
message. Thank you.
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Dear Secretariat General,
Thanks for your message.
You have rejected my request on the grounds release of the documents would undermine the ongoing decision process.
To make it clear, this is what the article says: "Access to a document, drawn up by an institution for internal use or received by an institution, which relates to a matter where the decision has not been taken by the institution, shall be refused if disclosure of the document would seriously undermine the institution's decision-making process, unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure."
The key phrase is the "institution's decision-making process". It is not the institution that is involved in the decision-making process, it is a country, the UK. The institution in this case, the European Commission, has no involvement in that decision-making.
There is also an over-riding public interest in releasing the documents. It's been 40+ years since the British public were given the opportunity to say whether they wanted to be involved in the EU project, a whole generation never voted for it in the first place. They also have the right to know, if they vote yes, on what terms they will stay in the union. It is crucial that voters have access to this information before they go to the polls, so they are able to make an informed, democratic choice.
Regards,
Chris Harris
Yours faithfully,
Chris Harris
I am away from my desk until 15 June 2016. This email is NOT being
forwarded. In case of necessity please call + 32 2 2981521
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