Information regarding Commission input in negotiations on CoE Recommendation

La demande a été rejetée par Migration et affaires intérieures.

Dear Directorate General Migration and Home Affairs,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as detailed in Regulation 1049/2001, we are requesting:

- all communications (including emails) exchanged in October, November and December 2017 between DG HOME Unit D4 (Cybercrime) and the EU Delegation to the Council of Europe regarding the draft Recommendation of the Council of Europe on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries;

- the comments sent by DG HOME to the EU Delegation to the Council of Europe on the draft Recommendation of the Council of Europe on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries;

- the invitation sent to Member States to the meeting at 15h on Tuesday, 22nd November to discuss comments received from DG HOME;

- any notes / minutes from the above-mentioned meeting on 22nd November prepared by the European Commission as well as input received from Member States following this meeting;

- all communications in the period October to December (inclusive) between European Commission officials and Member States (individually or collectively) regarding the draft Recommendation of the Council of Europe on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries;

- communications between Commission officials agreeing that the view of the Commission was that the draft Recommendation of the Council of Europe on the roles and responsibilities of internet intermediaries was, as was apparently asserted in the invitation to the 22nd November meeting, “in stark contrast with the EU acquis”.

I agree to any necessary redactions for the protection of privacy according to (Art. 4 (1) (b)) of Regulation 1049/2001.

Best regards,

European Digital Rights
Rue Belliard 20. 1040 Brussels (BELGIUM)
Contact person: Joe McNamee

EC ARES NOREPLY,

[1]Ares(2018)341753 - your access to documents request - ref Gestdem
2018/0435

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<[email address]>. All responses have to be sent to
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Envoyé par ve_home.access.to.documents (HOME)
<[email address]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Sir / Madam,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 18/01/2018.  We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on
19/01/2018 under reference number GestDem 2018/0435.

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 
09/02/2018. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course.

Yours faithfully,

European Commission
DG Migration and Home Affairs
Access to Documents Team

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Migration et affaires intérieures

1 Attachment

Dear Sir,
Please find attached a letter concerning your query.

Kind regards,

DG HOME.D4 - CYBERCRIME

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[1]Ares(2018)1178649 - FW: Holding reply - RE: access to documents request
- Information regarding Commission input in negotiations on CoE
Recommendation - GestDem No 2018/0435

Sent by ve_home.access.to.documents (HOME)
<[email address]>. All responses have to be sent to
this email address.
Envoyé par ve_home.access.to.documents (HOME)
<[email address]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
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Dear Mr McNamee,

In reference to your above-mentioned request, we wish to inform you that
our services are not in a position to finalise the reply by today.

We will do our best to reply in the days to come.

In the meantime, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this
may cause.

Best regards,

European Commission
DG Migration and Home Affairs
Access to Documents Team

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Migration et affaires intérieures

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Dear Mr Mc Namee,

Please, find attached our reply to your query.

 

Best regards,

 

DG HOME.D4 - CYBERCRIME

 

 

Dear Migration and Home Affairs,

We accept all redactions done on the basis of article 4.1b. of Regulation 1049/2001.

As a general comment, the invitation sent to Member States by the EEAS for the November coordination meeting was sent on 22 November at 17.05, for a meeting that was ostensibly to take part at 15.00 on the same day: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/5062.... We assume that this is a mistake and the dates are wrong. Please understand references to 22 November as referring to the date that the meeting actually took place.

We would like to make a confirmatory application with regard to:

i) partial access to what your letter refers to as documents 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6:

We contend that Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001 does not apply, except in relation to personal data. The European Commission is not a member of the Council of Europe and therefore there was no decision to be made by the Commission on the proposed Recommendation. Consequently, the documents cannot refer “to a matter where the decision has not been taken by the institution”.

This position is confirmed by your assertion that the 22 November meeting to discuss your position did not involve “input from the Member States”, despite multiple communications with the Estonian Presidency on the subject. As the Member States were the decision-makers in the Council of Europe, this confirms that the Commission’s work did not involve any “decision-making” that would fall under the scope of Regulation 1049/2001.

Furthermore, it is not credible to argue that the European Commission was involved in any sort of meaningful decision-making process while according to your cover letter <https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/5061...> nobody from DG HOME felt it was worthwhile to attend the coordination meeting, while nobody thought it was worthwhile to prepare or share notes from the meeting, and while confirming that no Member State provided input on the analysis discussed at the 22 November meeting.

We also do not agree that it is “pointless” for DG HOME to share the non-confidential information that was circulated by the Commission, on the basis that our Executive Director was an observer on the Council of Europe Committee. Without receiving the documents in the format that they were sent, we no way of knowing whether or not the documents contained comments by the Commission.

ii) partial disclosure of documents 3.1 and 3.7 as the use of Article 4.1 of Regulation 1049/2001 is not justified. As already stated, there was no decision-making to be made by the European Commission with regard to the file in question. Therefore disclosure cannot logically be withheld on the basis of putative interference with this non-existent decision-making process. We request that the Commission review this assessment.

iii) having had access to all drafts of the Recommendation, we can say with complete certainty that there was never anything in any draft of the Council of Europe recommendation that raised any risk to “the protection of the public interest with regard to public security”. We therefore request that DG HOME reconsider the justifications listed on page 7 of your letter regarding documents 1.2, 3.1, 3.8, 2.1 and 2.2.

iv) the justification for non-disclosure of document 3.8 is entirely without merit and we request that this be reconsidered. If disclosure of this document to EDRi risks undermining the public interest as regards international relations, then disclosing this document to WeProtect <https://www.weprotect.org/>, an organisation that includes board members like Google, Microsoft and Facebook (whose business interests were directly impacted by the draft Recommendation) would also have undermined the public interest. This impression is reinforced by the fact that the board (in which you say the Commission participates “as a member”) of that organisation explicitly undertakes to coordinate their “lobbying” activities. Nonetheless, if DG HOME now believes that its disclosure of information to WeProtect was a mistake and did undermine the public interest, we will have to give this admission due consideration but still would request for disclosure of document 3.8, as the documents were already leaked to private companies by the Commission.

We look forward to hearing from you and receiving the documents as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully,

European Digital Rights (EDRi)
Address: Rue Belliard 20. 1040 Brussels
Contact: Joe McNamee

Migration et affaires intérieures

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email dated 20/03/2018, by which you request, pursuant to Regulation No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, a review of the position taken by DG HOME in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2018/435.

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access to documents which was registered on 21/03/2018 (Ares(2018)1551947).

Your application will be handled within 15 working days (16/04/2018). In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

Please be informed that the answer to your confirmatory application is a formal Commission decision that will be notified to you by express delivery.

We kindly offer you the possibility to provide us a contact phone number (by email to [email address]), so that the external delivery service can contact you in case of absence.

Please note that the Commission will not use your phone number for any other purpose than for informing the delivery service, and that it will delete it immediately thereafter.

Carlos Remis
SG.B.4
Transparence
Berl. 05/315

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[5]Ares(2018)2021088 - Your confirmatory application for access to
documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 – GESTDEM 2018/435

Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
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réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

 

Dear Mr McNamee,

 

I refer to your e-mail of 20 March 2018, registered on 21 March 2018, by
which you submit a confirmatory application in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents (‘Regulation 1049/2001’).

 

Your confirmatory application is currently being handled. Unfortunately,
due to ongoing consultations, we are not in a position to reply to your
confirmatory request within the prescribed time limit that expires on 16
April 2018.

 

Consequently, we have to extend this period by another 15 working days in
accordance with Article 8(2) of Regulation 1049/2001. The new deadline for
your application expires on 8 May 2018.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

Martine Fouwels

Deputy Head of Unit

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European Commission

Secretariat General

Unit B4 (Transparency)

 

References

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5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...

EC ARES NOREPLY,

1 Attachment

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

[5]Ares(2018)2411530 - 2nd Holding reply - McNamee - GestDem 2018/435

Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[email address]>. All responses have
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Subject:            Your confirmatory application for access to documents
under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 - GESTDEM 2018/435

Dear Mr McNamee,

I refer to your e-mail of 20 March 2018, registered on 21 March 2018, in
which you submit, a confirmatory application in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European
Parliament, Council and Commission documents[6]^[1] ('Regulation
1049/2001').

I also refer to our holding reply of 16 April 2018, by which the time
limit for replying to your confirmatory application was extended by 15
working days, pursuant to Article 8(2) of the Regulation. This extended
time limit expires on 8 May 2018.

I regret to have to inform you that we are not able to respond within the
extended time-limit, as we have not yet finalised internal consultations.
I can assure you that we are doing our utmost to provide you with a final
reply as soon as possible. I regret this additional delay and sincerely
apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Yours sincerely,

Elissavet Kapnopoulou

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------------------------

[8][1]              Official Journal L 145 of 31.5.2001, p. 43.

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4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...
6. file:///tmp/foiextract20180507-4362-ky63v8#_ftn1
8. file:///tmp/foiextract20180507-4362-ky63v8#_ftnref1

Migration et affaires intérieures

8 Attachments

Dear Sir,
 
Please find attached a copy of the confirmatory decision taken on your
request for access to documents registered under Gestdem number 2018/435,
adopted on 29/05/2018 in the above-mentioned case.
 
Please note that the Secretariat-General of the European Commission will
proceed with the formal notification of the decision in the coming days.
 
This copy is solely sent for your information and is not the formal
notification of the confirmatory decision.
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Carlos Remis
SG.B.4
Transparence
Berl. 05/315