Communications between DG for Taxation and Customs Union and member states
Dear Taxation and Customs Union,
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:
Copia de todas las comunicaciones que el Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union ha enviado a los Gobiernos de cada Estado miembro para avisar de que no se sancionaría a los países que bajaran el IVA de productos como las mascarillas, tanto en cuanto a importación como en venta al público final, y copia de la respuesta a esas comunicaciones de los Gobiernos de cada Estado miembro.
Solicito también copia de todas y cada una de las comunicaciones que el Gobierno de cada estado haya mandado preguntando si se podía reducir el IVA de las mascarillas o alguna cuestión similar, tanto si han sido previas a las comunicaciones del Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union como si han sido posteriores.
Solicito que sobre todas estas comunicaciones que he solicitado se tenga en cuenta todas las comunicaciones tanto sobre la exención del IVA para la importación de estos productos como todas las comunicaciones sobre la exención del IVA para la venta al consumidor final en cada país de estos productos.
Yours faithfully,
Nacho Calle
Calle Jesús Goldero, 19, 2º, CP 28045 Madrid - Spain
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your request of 30/11/2020. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 30/11/2020 under reference number GESTDEM 2020/6478.
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 21/12/2020. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.
You have lodged your application via 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 "ask the EU" website is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data via that website, and not the Commission. For further information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may have communicated to the 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 that your correspondence with the Commission is published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address, and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply from, the Commission.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our page Privacy statement – access to documents.
Please be informed that the Commission has taken precautionary measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus and reduce the risk of infection of our staff, while ensuring business continuity. Since 16 March, all colleagues in non-critical functions are teleworking. This may have an effect on the physical search of documents and internal/external consultations. As a consequence, the procedure to handle your applications may take longer than foreseen.
Yours faithfully,
Access to Documents Team
Dear Sir,
We refer to your request dated 30/11/2020 in which you make a request for access to documents, registered on 30/11/2020 under the above mentioned reference number.
Your application is currently being handled. However, we will not be in a position to complete the handling by 21/12/2020.
An extended time limit for more in-depth investigations and consultation with the Member States is needed in order to complete our assessment on the possibility for the public disclosure of the documents requested.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit in accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents and we will do our utmost to provide you with a reply by 20/01/2021.
Be informed that the Commission has taken precautionary measures at containing the spread of the COVID-19 virus and to reduce the risk of infection of our staff while ensuring business continuity. Since 16 March, all colleagues in non-critical functions are teleworking. This will have an effect on (physical) search of documents and internal / external consultations. As a consequence, the procedure to handle your application may take longer than foreseen.
We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
TAXUD ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Dear Mr Calle,
On 30/11/2020 you submitted a request for access to documents relating to
COVID-19, under reference GESTDEM 2020/7427.
Your request concerns the communications of the Commission with the
Government of each Member State, concerning the relief from import duties
and VAT exemption on importation.
We are currently processing your request and this is our interim
assessment at this moment:
1. we have identified 3 documents of the Commission, requesting
the Member States if they wanted to be included in a decision for relief
from import duties and exemption from value added tax (“VAT”) on imported
goods: 1)Letter of 20 March 2020, 2)Letter of 11 June 2020 ( first
extension of relief until 31/10), 3) letter of 29 September (2nd extension
until 30/3/2021).
2. In addition, we have identified for each letter, 28 replies
of the Member States (in the form of a e-mail/letter): in total there are
(3 x 28 ) 84 documents to assess; a preliminary assessment shows that the
Member States in confirmed their agreement with this proposed Decision.
This is mentioned in the recitals of the related Decision.
In accordance with the case law of the Court of Justice of the European
Union [1], we are obliged to balance possible interest in access to
documents against the workload resulting from the processing of the
application. In particular, if the handling of an application would
involve a disproportionate administrative burden, the Access to Documents
Regulation provides for the possibility to confer with the applicant to
find a fair solution in accordance with Article 6(3) of Regulation
1049/2001.
For your information, based on experience, the processing of 10 documents
takes approximately 30 working days[3] given that the following steps must
be followed:
· preliminary assessment and interpretation of your request,
· contacts and exchanges within the Directorate General,
· identification, gathering and quick screening of the documents
falling under your request,
· assessment of the content of the documents,
· conducting consultations under Article 4(4) and/or 4(5) of
Regulation 1049/2001, if necessary,
· performing possible redactions of the relevant parts that fall
under exceptions of Regulation 1049/2001,
· preparation of the draft reply, and formal approval of the
decision by the Director General.
In view of the above and considering that we already spent almost 15
working days on this request , we propose a fair solution and suggest the
following:
1. We provide you the 3 documents of the Commission which can be
disclosed
2. For the remaining 84 documents, we suggest that you make a
selection of the replies of 10 Member States related to one of the
Commission documents. We kindly ask you to specify which Member States’
replies you would like to receive and to which one of the three Commission
documents they should relate to. This package would already give you a
fair view of the replies of the Member States ( we repeat that all Member
States replied positively).
This fair solution will allow us to balance interests in requests for
access to documents and reply to you within the extended deadline of 5
February 2021.
For future access to documents requests, we would kindly ask you to more
specifically describe the objective of your request and your specific
interest in the documents requested, and to narrow down the scope of your
request (i.e. the subject matter(s)/or timeframe covered), to allow us to
make the workload more manageable and to better focus our replies on those
documents that address your objective.
In order to enable us to provide you with access to the documents as soon
as possible, we would ask you for a swift response to this proposal for a
fair solution, within five working days at the latest, by emailing
[1][DG TAXUD request email]. In the absence of a reply
within five working days, we will unilaterally decide to apply this fair
solution taking into account your legitimate interests, the deadlines of
Regulation 1049/2001 and the interests of safeguarding good
administration.
Kind regards,
TAXUD ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Dear [email address] - Estimada Dirección General,
Muchas gracias por su labor y por la información que me remitís, pero hay otra carta al respecto de la Comisión que es de otra fecha de la que decís, es esta: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/8708...
Estaría especialmente interesado en la respuesta a esa carta, que es del 3 de abril. ¿Sería posible recibir la respuesta de los estados a esa carta? Me interesan las comunicaciones de los estados especialmente sobre la aplicación del IVA en productos como las mascarillas pero no para la importación ni la compra entre países, sino para la venta al consumidor final en el propio país, por eso pregunto por esa comunicación.
Por eso en mi solicitud también indicaba lo siguiente: Solicito también copia de todas y cada una de las comunicaciones que el Gobierno de cada estado haya mandado preguntando si se podía reducir el IVA de las mascarillas o alguna cuestión similar, tanto si han sido previas a las comunicaciones del Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union como si han sido posteriores. Más allá de las cartas de la Comisión, ¿no hay comunicaciones de los Estados preguntando por eso a la Dirección General? Diversos países han hecho público que habían preguntado sobre ese tema a la Comisión.
En caso que me pudierais facilitar las respuestas a la carta que comento y las consultas concretas de cada país sobre esa bajada de IVA para la venta al consumidor final en productos como las mascarillas, me interesarían los siguientes diez países, con la intención de llegar a un acuerdo con vosotros: Alemania, Francia, Italia, Austria, Hungría, Grecia, España, Polonia, Portugal e Irlanda.
Muchas gracias y disculpad las molestias,
Un saludo.
Nacho
Dear Mr. Calle,
Thank you for your reply.
Thank you very much for the clarification . This will hopefully enable us
to deliver the requested documents within the set time limit.
The time-limit will expire on 05/02/2021. In case this time-limit needs to
be extended, you will be informed in due course.
For further correspondence, would it be possible to contact via your
private e-mail address as explained in our notification?
If you do not wish that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.
Kind regards,
TAXUD ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
