Hydrogen COP28 VDL
To Secretariat General of the European Commission,
From: Belen Balanya, Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels.
8 July 2023 RE: Access to Documents related Hydrogen & COP28
Dear sirs,
Referring to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to EU documents and to the 'Aarhus Regulation', I would herewith like to ask for access to the following:
1. A list of the meetings/ discussions (including those held face to face, online, by telephone etc) that have taken place since 1 January 2023 between President von der Leyen and/or her cabinet on one hand and representatives from Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, the African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP), the Hydrogen Council, Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2), Shell, Total, Equinor, BP, Eni, FTI Consulting and/or Baker McKenzie, on the other, in which the issue hydrogen and COP28 was discussed.
2. Any records, minutes or notes of these meetings/discussions.
3. Any briefings prepared for these meetings.
4. All correspondence exchanged since 1 January 2023 (including SMS & any other type of messages processed through phone apps - eg., WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram etc, recorded voice messages, emails, letters and attached documents) between President von der Leyen and/or her cabinet and representatives of companies and/or industry associations Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, the African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP), Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2), Shell, Total, Equinor, BP, Eni, Hydrogen Council, FTI Consulting and/or Baker McKenzie, (including lobby consultancies and law firms working for them) in which the issue hydrogen and COP28 was discussed.
In the interests of good administration, Corporate Observatory Europe requests that the response clearly identifies the documents held by the Commission in relation to each of these categories and clearly indicates to which category the disclosed documents relate.
To the extent possible, our preference is to receive documents in electronic format.
Documents that cannot be sent in electronic format should be sent to Corporate Europe Observatory, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels – to the attention of Belén Balanyá. Should you transmit documents to us by regular post, we kindly ask you to announce us in advance in this regard.
I would like to make clear I prefer you produce the documents on a rolling basis.
At no point should the Commission’s search for—or deliberations concerning—certain documents delay the production of others that the Commission has already retrieved and elected to produce.
Should my request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions referring to specific exemptions in the regulation. Also I expect the partial release of documents, in case of partial exemption according to article 4.6.
I reserve the right to appeal.
Please confirm having received this application. I look forward to your reply within 15 business days, according to the regulation.
Thank you for your assistance.
Belen Balanya
Corporate Europe Observatory
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 08/07/2023 and registered on 08/07/2023 under the case number
2023/3980.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 31/07/2023. We will let you know
if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working days.
To find more information on how we process your personal data, please see
[1]the privacy statement.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Ms Balanya,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 08.07.2023 under case number 2023/3980.
We are currently working on your request. However, we have not yet been
able to gather all the elements necessary to carry out a full analysis of
your request. We will not be able to send you the reply within the
prescribed time limit expiring on 31.07.2023.
Therefore, in line with Article 7(3) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
we need to extend this time limit by 15 additional working days. The new
time limit expires on 22.08.2023.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
SG.D2 Secretariat
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Hydrogen COP28 VDL'.
In conformity with Article 7(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (hereafter “the Regulation”), I hereby submits a confirmatory application regarding the Commission's implied refusal to provide the information I requested on 8 July 2023, registered as GESTDEM 2023/3980
The last response by Secretariat General of the European Commission set the new deadline for 22 August, already expired.
I accordingly urge you to disclose the requested information in the shortest time possible.
Kind regards,
Belén Balanyá
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 or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2023/3980, sent on 15/09/2023 and registered on 15/09/2023.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 06/10/2023. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2023/3980, sent on 15/09/2023 and registered on 15/09/2023.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 06/10/2023. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
Dear applicant,
We are writing concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case 2023/3980 registered on 15/09/2023.
We are currently working on your confirmatory request. However, we have
not yet been able to gather all the elements necessary to carry out a full
analysis of your request. We will not be able to send you the reply within
the prescribed time limit expiring on 06/10/2023.
A new deadline is required since more work and consultations need to be
performed.
Therefore, in line with Article 8(2) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 we
need to extend this time limit by 15 additional working days. The new time
limit expires on 27/10/2023.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Ms Balanya,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2023/3980.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
SG D Secretariat