Documents submitted by FRA director to European Commission
Dear Secretariat General (SG),
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:
-Documents containing the replies of two European Commission employees to FRA director following this communication to them http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... (I refer to Answers of mr Nemitz and mr Selmayr, or transfer of information, or forwarding of email or any other addressing action).
-Information about the labeling of director's email as "personal". Is it personal?
- Information on how this email reached the public domain http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/mr_mo... (Reg. 45/2001)and if existing, agreement of author of personal email for such public disclosure.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Stabenow
Dear Mr Stabenow,
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No
2013/5704
We refer to your e-mail dated 5 November 2013 in which you make a request
for access to documents, registered on 13 November 2013 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 4 December 2013.
An extended time limit is needed as your application concerns documents
held by third parties which need to be consulted.
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 6 January 2014.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
Tel. +32-2-29 69463
Gsm. +32-498-9 69463
E-mail: [adresse e-mail]
Dear Secretariat General (SG),
It is noted that SG extended the time limit.
It is also noted that European Commission answered under this Request
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/perso... that there are no documents to be disclosed.
By my first Request sent on 5th November, I asked access to:
"-Documents containing the replies of two European Commission employees to FRA director following this communication to them
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... (I refer to Answers of mr Nemitz and mr Selmayr, or transfer of information, or forwarding of email or any other addressing action)."
Similar documents were requested under this link http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/perso... (second point).
As you can see European Commission replied that :
"Following your request, we have carried out a check in our archives and we could find no correspondence that is relevant in relation to the request for access to documents that is being made. None of the contacts, documents or correspondence to which you refer have taken place. Therefore we have no documents to provide you with. "
For my request EC extended the deadline until first month of next year. However if there are no documents to be disclosed for my point 1, this extension is not justified.
Could EC confirm already during this year the response provided under the link above ("None of the contacts, documents or correspondence to which you refer have taken place. Therefore we have no documents to provide you with." ?).
As you may realize, Mr Kjaerum personal correspondence is sensitive and raises some questions. He wrote to European Commission high staff about financial irregularities and apparently there was no reaction from European Commission side.
I noted however a collateral reaction from EC: termination of DIHR grant http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/877/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/termi...
I also noted that President of European Commission intervened in some other similar sensitive requests
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/dg_in...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/583/r...
Yours faithfully,
Mike Stabenow
Dear Mr Stabenow,
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No
2013/5704
I refer to your e-mails of 5 November 2013 and 6 December 2013 by which
you have requested the following:
1. Documents containing the replies of two European Commission
employees to FRA director following this communication to them
[1]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r...
20January2012%20pdf.PDF.pdf (I refer to Answers of mr Nemitz and mr
Selmayr, or transfer of information, or forwarding of email or any other
addressing action)
2. Information about the labelling of director's email as
"personal". Is it personal?
3. Information on how this email reached the public domain
[2]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/mr_mo...
(Reg. 45/2001)and if existing, agreement of author of personal email for
such public disclosure.
Following your request, we have carried out the necessary inquiries as
well as a check in our archives and we can conclude the following:
On the first point we could find no documents containing replies to the
communication to which you refer. However, I can inform you that on this
issue a discussion took place between Mr Selmayr and Director General Ms
Le Bail concluding that this is an internal Danish matter relating to a
topic which dates from before Mr Kjaerum joined the FRA as Director.
As regards your further requests under point 2 and 3 I must inform you
that these are requests for information and not for access to specific
documents. These requests therefore do not fall under the provisions of
Regulation 1049/2001.
Nevertheless, your last request under point 3 for a possible "agreement of
author of personal email for such public disclosure" can be considered to
refer a document and to fall under Regulation 1049/2001. Because the
document containing the agreement originates from a third person, the
Commission has consulted the person in question to ask for permission for
the disclosure of the document. However, the author of the document in
question has made his approval of public disclosure conditional upon
verification of the identity of the applicant as a natural person in the
sense of Article 2(1) of Regulation 1049/2001. To respond to that
condition, I would ask if you are willing to send the Commission such
proof, e.g. a copy of your identity card. Otherwise, there is no consent
of the third person to disclose the document on " agreement of author of
personal email for such public disclosure" and the Commission would need
to refuse the disclosure. Nevertheless, if the Commission would refuse,
according to Regulation 1049/2001 you may make a confirmatory application
asking the Commission to reconsider its position.
Yours sincerely,
Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
Tel. +32-2-29 69463
Gsm. +32-498-9 69463
E-mail: [adresse e-mail]
Dear Ms Salla Saastamoinen,
Thank you for your email.
As you might be aware DPO of EC provided this response
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/reque...
Before to enter into the essence of your email I would appreciate if you could confirm that the author of the personal email in question accessible at http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/477/r... is the same person with the person referred to in MEP`s Parliamentary question available here: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getD... and the former DIHR director who apologies about “losing 3.0 mio Danish crowns” here http://jyllands-posten.dk/politik/ECE462... .
You state that “that this is an internal Danish matter relating to a topic which dates from before Mr Kjaerum joined the FRA as Director”. Is your formulation to be understood that there is an acceptance from the Commission for such issues committed in the past, as the ones pointed out by MEP, mr Morten Messerschmidt under the link above? The member of the European Parliament raised issues of false accounting committed under the leadership of the former Director of DIHR, current director of FRA. Should be understood that this is fine and all right for you and the Commission?.
As to the request by Mr morten Kjaerum to ask for identity documents, I would refer you to this link http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/olaf_... , drafted in the same specialist language used at institutions for fundamental rights similar to FRA. Mr Kjaerum is the Director of EU Agency for Fundamental rights, an agency which works on daily basis with Regulations 1049/2001 and 45/2001. Should be the case that the rules required under the request quoted above are not yet in place at the commission and fra, please consider to satisfy my request by disclosing documents in other appropriate format (a redacted version.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Stabenow
Dear sender,
I am on leave until 6 January 2014 and will not read the e-mails
regularly.
With Season's Greetings,
Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------
Head of Unit JUSTICE.C.1 Fundamental rights and rigths of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
Tel. +32-2-296.94.63
Gsm. +32-498-96.94.63
E-mail: [adresse e-mail]
Please find attached a reply to correspondence to the European Commission.
Kind regards,
Secretariat C1
European Commission
DG Justice
Unit C1
Mo 59 05/75
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
[1][adresse e-mail]
Fundamental Rights on Europa:
[2]http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-...
EU children's rights website: [3]http://ec.europa.eu/0-18/
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[adresse e-mail]
2. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-...
3. http://ec.europa.eu/0-18/