European Commission protocols for dealing with the tobacco industry
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
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:
- rules, instructions and guidance for European Commission officials about dealing with the tobacco industry, clarifying what is or is not appropriate when there is contact with the tobacco industry, and how such contacts should be handled.
The Preamble of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) recognized that Parties “need to be alert to any efforts by the tobacco industry to undermine or subvert tobacco control efforts and the need to be informed of activities of the tobacco industry that have a negative impact on tobacco control efforts”.
Further, Article 5.3 of the Convention requires that “in setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law”.
This request concerns documents clarifying the European Commission's implementation of the FTCC obligation to develop a specific approach for contacts with the tobacco industry. The guidelines accompanying Article 5.3 state that: "7. Parties should implement measures in all branches of government that may have an interest in, or the capacity to, affect public health policies with respect to tobacco control." This request therefore covers documents produced by all Commission Directorates-General, outlining their approaches to protecting policy-making from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.
Yours faithfully,
Olivier Hoedeman
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Rue d'Edimbourg 26,
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel. +32 (0)2 893 0930
Mobile: +32 474 486545
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of 30 April 2020. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 14
May 2020 under reference number GESTDEM 2020/2865.
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 9
June 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.
Yours faithfully,
SANTE Access to Documents Team
Dear Sir,
We refer to your email of 14 May 2020 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on the same date 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 9 June 2020.
An extended time limit is needed as internal consultations are being
carried out.
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 30 June 2020.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
[1]cid:image001.gif@01D3FF48.374A49E0
European Commission
Health and Food Safety
References
Visible links
Please find attached document Ares(2020)3296205 from RYS Andrzej Jan (SANTE.DDG1.B.1) dated 24/06/2020.
Veuillez trouver ci-joint le document Ares(2020)3296205 de RYS Andrzej Jan (SANTE.DDG1.B.1) daté du 24/06/2020.
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
Please find attached document Ares(2020)3383838 from BUCHER Anne (SANTE) dated 29/06/2020.
Due to the dimension of the disclosed documents, the attachments will be sent to you in a series of numbered emails.
In the same time, according to standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered post.Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary health and security measures currently in force during the COVID-19 epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical staff to telework, we are unfortunately in a position to follow this procedure until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm the receipt of the present e-mail by replying to [email address]
Kind regards,
European Commission
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety
Unit B2 – Cross-border healthcare and tobacco control
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
E-mail: [email address]
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
Please find attached document Ares(2020)3383838 from BUCHER Anne (SANTE) dated 29/06/2020.
Due to the dimension of the disclosed documents, the attachments will be sent to you in a series of numbered emails.
In the same time, according to standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered post.Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary health and security measures currently in force during the COVID-19 epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical staff to telework, we are unfortunately in a position to follow this procedure until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm the receipt of the present e-mail by replying to [email address]
Kind regards,
European Commission
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety Unit B2 – Cross-border healthcare and tobacco control
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
E-mail: [email address]
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
Please find attached document Ares(2020)3383838 from BUCHER Anne (SANTE) dated 29/06/2020.
Due to the dimension of the disclosed documents, the attachments will be sent to you in a series of numbered emails.
In the same time, according to standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered post.Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary health and security measures currently in force during the COVID-19 epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical staff to telework, we are unfortunately in a position to follow this procedure until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm the receipt of the present e-mail by replying to [email address]
Kind regards,
European Commission
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety Unit B2 – Cross-border healthcare and tobacco control
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
E-mail: [email address]
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
Please find attached document Ares(2020)3383838 from BUCHER Anne (SANTE) dated 29/06/2020.
Due to the dimension of the disclosed documents, the attachments will be sent to you in a series of numbered emails.
In the same time, according to standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered post.Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary health and security measures currently in force during the COVID-19 epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical staff to telework, we are unfortunately in a position to follow this procedure until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm the receipt of the present e-mail by replying to [email address]
Kind regards,
European Commission
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety Unit B2 – Cross-border healthcare and tobacco control
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
E-mail: [email address]
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
Please find attached document Ares(2020)3383838 from BUCHER Anne (SANTE) dated 29/06/2020.
Due to the dimension of the disclosed documents, the attachments will be sent to you in a series of numbered emails.
In the same time, according to standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered post.Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary health and security measures currently in force during the COVID-19 epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical staff to telework, we are unfortunately in a position to follow this procedure until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm the receipt of the present e-mail by replying to [email address]
Kind regards,
European Commission
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety Unit B2 – Cross-border healthcare and tobacco control
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
E-mail: [email address]
Dear Mr. Hoedeman,
With reference to your letter of 30 April 2020, you may find attached Commissions' reply.
Best Regards,
European Commission
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety
Unit B2 – Cross-border Healthcare and Tobacco Control
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
E-mail: [email address]
Please find attached document Ares(2020)3537418 from BUCHER Anne (SANTE) dated 06/07/2020.
Veuillez trouver ci-joint le document Ares(2020)3537418 de BUCHER Anne (SANTE) daté du 06/07/2020.
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
You have received this email earlier today. According to standard
operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered
post. Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary health and
security measures currently in force during to the COVID-19 epidemics,
which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical staff to
telework, we are unfortunately not in a position to follow this procedure
until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm receipt of the present
e-mail by replying to [1][email address].
Thank you in advance.
SANTE.B.1
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
please find attached document Ares(2020)5363391 from GALLINA Sandra (SANTE) dated 09/10/2020.
Please note that this email only includes the letter and the excel table. The documents will be sent to you with several numbered emails.
Kind regards,
SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Please find attached document Ares(2020)6259160 from ve_grow.access documents (GROW.01) dated 02/11/2020.
Please be informed, that due to the present circumstances we are not sending paper versions of the documents via post.
Secretariat of the European Commission
Services in the Single Market and Digitalisation
GROW.E.1 - Services Directive and Policy