Dear Mr Breyer,

The Commission’s Legal Service acknowledges receipt of the withdrawal of
your request, reference GestDem 2021/6144, and your informing us about
your intention to file a more specific one.

By email of 3 November 2021, you request access to “all documents written
in 2021 by the Commission's Legal Service which

a) contain the words "HOME", "JUST" or "CNECT" and

b) concern existing or upcoming/potential legislation or legislative
proposals in the responsibility of DGs HOME, JUST or Connect.”

Although you have narrowed down your request to 2021, a preliminary
research in our internal databases gives a result of more than 3500
documents containing the words “HOME”, “JUST” or “CNECT”. A different
research concerning documents sent by the Legal Service to the DGs HOME,
JUST or CNECT gives a result of about 450 documents. However, the precise
identification of the documents concerning existing legislation or
legislative proposals would imply the verification of each of these
documents.

As already explained in our previous email exchanges with you, the Legal
Service cannot deal with your application under Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001.

Accordingly, we kindly ask you to indicate a specific document or a
document concerning a specific Commission’s proposal in order to enable
the Legal Service to deal with your request.

We thank you for your cooperation.

Best regards,

Access to Documents team

[1]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10

European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

[2][email address]

References

Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]

Dear Mr Breyer,

My team has looked into your request. A preliminary research in our internal databases has given a result of 446 documents sent in 2021 by the Legal Service to DG HOME (141 documents), DG JUST (234 documents) and DG CNECT (71 documents).

I wish that the review of those files could take 1 minute per document. However, the extraction of documents from the data base is only the first step of the procedure. Then each document (which may include annexes) must be read by my colleagues to verify whether it might contain information protected by Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 (e.g. personal data, sensitive information related to ongoing court proceedings etc.). If we identify any such potentially sensitive information, we must consult the responsible lawyer in the Legal Service and possibly officials in the responsible Directorates General before we prepare the final decision on disclosure for each of the documents and then we must produce copies with the sensitive information specifically redacted.
Given that documents on legislative proposals may consist of dozens of pages and more, all that procedure concerning potentially thousands of pages altogether would take not a day, but probably many weeks. We receive a request for access almost every working day (over 200 hundred a year), so you will surely understand that we cannot accept requests which are so vast and unspecific (the Regulation requiring indication of a specific document).

Nevertheless, in the spirit of fair solution advanced by the Regulation, I would have one more proposal for you. If you do not wish to specify your request, I would suggest to split it. Your request could be limited for now to Legal Service documents concerning legislative proposals and sent to DG CNECT in the first half of 2021.
It would allow us to verify in practice the workload necessary to handle such an open request and it would allow you to see whether that invested workload produces documents that are actually of interest for you and how the future requests could be more specific.

Please let me know whether this would be satisfactory for you.

Kind regards,
Marek Kaduczak
Head of the Information and Documentation Group
Legal Service
European Commission

Afficher les sections citées

Dear Mr Breyer,

Thank you for your quick and constructive reply.
I will instruct my team accordingly.

Kind regards,
Marek Kaduczak

Afficher les sections citées

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Your request for Access to Documents - Confirmation of registration -
Ares(2021)7835231  (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)

Dear Mr Breyer,

We acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents dated 1
December 2021, by which you request the Legal Service’s documents
concerning legislative proposals sent to DG HOME during the second half of
2021, namely from 1^st July 2021 until 1^st December 2021, the date on
which your request has been registered under reference number:
GestDem2021/8127.

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
December 2021. You will be informed in due course, in case this deadline
needs to be extended.   

Kindly note that the "AsktheEU.org" website 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. Hence, the European Commission
is not responsible for any possible processing of personal data by the
private organisation running the AsktheEU.org website, through which you
have channelled your request. Please refer to their privacy policy.

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
[6]Privacy statement – access to documents.

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents

[7]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10

European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

[8][email address]

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D7F365.2D61CE70
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
6. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
8. mailto:[email address]

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Your request for Access to Documents - Reference: GestDem2021/8127 -
Ares(2021)7949022  (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)

Dear Mr Breyer,

We refer to your above-referenced request for access to documents under
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ L 145, 31.05.2001, pages
43).

Your request is currently being handled. However, in view of the number
and nature of the requests for access to documents the Legal Service is
dealing with, and given the extraordinary situation due to the
Corona-pandemic, our services are presently working with limited
resources.

In this context, we will not be in a position to complete the processing
of your request within the time limit of 15 working days, which expires
today, 22 December 2021.

For this reason, this time-limit will be extended by 15 working days, in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, to expire on
21 January 2022.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents team

[6]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10

European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

[7][email address]

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D7F72F.1283F380
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]

Dear Mr Breyer,

I would like to inform you, before I leave for holidays, that my colleagues have established a list of documents that might fulfil the criteria indicated in your request and they have launched consultations with the relevant officials on whether those documents fall indeed within the scope of your request (the registration title in the database is not always precise enough) and if so, whether any of those documents (or their parts) might be covered by any exceptions to the principle of disclosure, depending on their actual content.

Please note that the following 11 days are not working days in the Commission, so my colleagues will continue their work thereafter.

With my best Christmas greetings,
Marek Kaduczak
Head of the Information and Documentation Group
Legal Service
European Commission

Afficher les sections citées

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Your request for Access to Documents - Reference: GestDem 2021/8127 -
Ares(2022)493569  (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)

Dear Mr Breyer,

We refer to your above-referenced request for access to documents under
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ L 145, 31.05.2001, page
43).

The reply to your request is currently in preparation. However, in view of
the number and nature of the requests for access to documents the Legal
Service is dealing with, we will not be in a position to complete the
processing of your request within the indicated time-limit which expires
today, 21 January 2022. Please note that we are still in the process of
consulting the competent officials from other teams and departments on the
possibility of disclosure of the identified documents.

Nevertheless, we are doing our outmost to send you our reply as soon as
possible.

Apologies for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents team

[6]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10

European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

[7][email address]

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D80EE3.11B68910
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping

[5]Your request for Access to Documents - Reference: GestDem 2021/8127 -
Ares(2022)1894096  (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)

Dear Mr Breyer,

Attached, please find the Legal Service’s reply to your above-referenced
request for access to documents.

Under the current COVID-19 pandemic circumstances, the Commission is
unable to send you the original of its reply-letter by Registered Mail.

In the light of this, we kindly ask you to confirm and acknowledge, by
return email, receipt of the Commission Legal Service’s reply and the
documents attached.

Thank you for your understanding.

Yours sincerely,

Access to Documents team

[6]cid:image001.gif@01D407C0.3E8CFF10

European Commission
Legal Service
Berlaymont

B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

[7][email address]

References

Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D83868.91AC1DC0
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/documen...
7. mailto:[email address]