Documents relating to stakeholder contacts on EU investment policy

La demande est partiellement réussie.

Dear Trade,

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:

1) a list of meetings of DG Trade officials and/or representatives (including the Commissioner and her Cabinet) and representatives of individual companies and/or industry federations such as BusinessEurope, the European Services Forum (ESF), the Federation of German Industries (BDI) and/or law firms such as Freshfields, White & Case, Herbert Smith and Sidley, in which the EU's foreign investment policy was discussed (since October 2015);

2) minutes and other reports of these meetings;

3) all correspondence (including emails) between DG Trade officials and/or representatives (including the Commissioner and her Cabinet) and representatives of companies, business associations and law firms, in which the EU's foreign investment policy was discussed (since October 2015).

I would appreciate if you could take the Code of Good Administrational Behaviour into account when considering section 1 of this request.

Yours faithfully,

Pia Eberhardt

Commerce

1 Attachment

Dear Mrs Eberhardt,
 
Thank you for your request for access to documents.
 
Unfortunately you have not indicated your postal address that is required
for registering and handling your request in line with the procedural
requirements. Please send us your full postal address at your earliest
convenience. Pending your reply, we reserve the right to refuse the
registration of your request.
 
You may, of course, use directly the electronic form for entering your
request:
[1]http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/...
 
 
Best regards,
 
 
Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG TRADE
 
 
 
 
 

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Dear Madams and Sirs,

my apologies for this.

The postal address is:
Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d'Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels
Belgium

Yours faithfully,

Pia Eberhardt

Commerce

1 Attachment

Dear Ms Eberhardt,
 
Thank you for your e-mail dated 08/06/2017.  We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered today
under reference number GestDem 2017/3510.
 
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
30/06/2017. 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]60^th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome

European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade
[2][DG TRADE request email] 
 
 
 

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1 Attachment

Dear Ms Eberhardt,
 
 
We refer to your e-mail dated 08/06/2017 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on 09/06/2017 under the above mentioned
reference number.
 
 
The initial examination of your request leads to the conclusion that your
request is of such a wide scope, as regards both subject-matter of the
request ("EU investment policy") and third parties that it does not enable
us to identify concrete documents which would correspond to your request.
 
 
We therefore invite you, pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, to provide us with more
detailed information on the documents which you seek to obtain. We would
appreciate if you could define the subject-matter of the documents
requested in a more narrow way than "the EU`s foreign investment policy"
(for example: market access discussions, any current negotiations…).
 
 
We would be grateful if you could please confirm that the representatives
of companies, business associations and law firms are limited to those
mentioned in the first bullet point of your request.
 
 
If you need assistance in clarifying or specifying your application, you
can contact us:
•       by email to: [1][DG TRADE request email]  
 
 
The 15 working days the time limit for handling your application will
start running when we receive the requested clarifications.
 
 
Thank you in advance for your understanding!
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG TRADE
 
 
_____________________________________________
From: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2017 5:04 PM
To: 'Pia Eberhardt'
Cc: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS
Subject: RE: access to documents request - Documents relating to
stakeholder contacts on EU investment policy
 
 
Dear Ms Eberhardt,
 
Thank you for your e-mail dated 08/06/2017.  We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered today
under reference number GestDem 2017/3510.
 
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
30/06/2017. 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
 
<< OLE Object: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) >>
[2]60^th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome

European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade
[3][DG TRADE request email] 
 
 
 

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Dear Madams and Sirs,

I am sorry that the request has not been sufficiently clear. I have sent similar requests in the past, in very similar wording (for example, https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/eu_i... and https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/stak...), which was apparently considered specific enough at that time.

I would appreciate if you could handle my request like you have handled these previous requests, so with a focus on upcoming and ongoing negotiations for trade and investment agreements and stakeholder contacts with companies, law firms and business associations in general.

In other words: the companies, business associations and law firms I mention in the request are examples, but the request is not limited to those.

Is that sufficiently clear? If not, I would consider limiting the time frame of the request. Just let me know.

Yours faithfully,

Pia Eberhardt

Dear Ms Eberhardt,

Thank you very much for your reply to our request for reduction of the scope of your access to documents request, that is registered in GestDem under no 2017/3510.

Nevertheless, we kindly invite you once again, pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, to provide us with more detailed information on the documents which you seek to obtain, notably, to identify the scope of the request in a more precise way. Treating this request with a focus on upcoming and ongoing negotiations for trade and investment agreements and stakeholder contacts with companies, law firms and business associations in general makes it still a too large request. We would therefore appreciate if you could define the subject-matter of the documents in a more specific way. Even if in the past it might have been possible to reply to requests with such a wide scope, the situation nowadays is different, given the wide range of activities ongoing in the context of EU investment policy and negotiations during the time span you indicated.

The 15 working days the time limit for handling your application will start running when we receive the requested clarifications.


Thank you in advance for your understanding.

Yours faithfully,

Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG TRADE

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Dear Madams and Sirs,

thank you for the response.

Let me hereby specify what I mean by "EU foreign investment policy" in my request:

* EU negotiations of investment protection provisions with the US, Canada, Japan, China, ASEAN countries, Mexico, Mercosur, and India
* the EU proposal for a Multilateral Investment Court (excluding documents, which the Commission will publish anyways in the context of the results of the consultation on the issue)
* the EU's role in the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT)

I hope it is clear and focused enough now.

Yours faithfully,

Pia Eberhardt

Dear Madams & Sirs,

would you be so kind to let me know if my previous clarifications have been enough for you to handle the request? And what the time limit for the release of the documents will be?

Yours faithfully,

Pia Eberhardt

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Dear Ms Eberhardt,
 
Thank you for your e-mail and thank you once again for the clarifications
you provided with regards to this request for access to documents!
 
Your application is currently being handled in accordance with the
clarification of your request of 15 June 2017. However, due to the heavy
workload on a large number of requests, we would like to inform you that
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 06 July 2017.
 
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 28 July 2017.
 
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
 
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Access to Documents Team
 
[1]60^th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome

European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade
[2][DG TRADE request email]
 
 

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1 Attachment

Dear Ms Eberhardt,
 
We are aware that the deadline for our reply to your request with
reference 2017/3510 expired on 28 July 2017. We would like to let you know
that we are handling your request alongside a large number of other
requests, some of them quite complex.
 
We identify a number of relevant documents that correspond to your request
and are doing our best to assess all of them and to provide you with an
answer as soon as possible.
 
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause and
will do our best to send out the final reply as soon as possible!
 
 
Best regards!
 
 
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG TRADE
 
 
 
_____________________________________________
From: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS
Sent: Monday, July 03, 2017 3:46 PM
To: Pia Eberhardt ([FOI #4370 email])
Cc: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS
Subject: FW: access to documents request GestDem 2017/3510 - Documents
relating to stakeholder contacts on EU investment policy
 
 
Dear Ms Eberhardt,
 
Thank you for your e-mail and thank you once again for the clarifications
you provided with regards to this request for access to documents!
 
Your application is currently being handled in accordance with the
clarification of your request of 15 June 2017. However, due to the heavy
workload on a large number of requests, we would like to inform you that
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 06 July 2017.
 
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 28 July 2017.
 
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
 
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Access to Documents Team
 
<< OLE Object: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) >>
[1]60^th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome

European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade
[2][DG TRADE request email]
 
 

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Dear Madams and Sirs,

could you please update me on the status of this request? The time limit you set - 28 July - has long passed. When do you expect to release the requested documents?

Thank you in advance for the update!

Yours faithfully,

Pia Eberhardt

27 Attachments

Dear Ms Eberhardt,

The reply was sent to your personal e-mail address ([email address]) on 17/08/2017 (the cover letter of the reply was also sent by registered mail on the same date).

For your convenience, we are forwarding you the reply and we apologise if this misunderstanding has caused you any inconvenience!

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG TRADE

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Dear Madams & Sirs,

thank you very much for your response - and my apologies for having missed the earlier emails.

Yours faithfully,

Pia Eberhardt