non-paper Commission of February 7, 2013 (Ukraine - Association Agreement)

La demande est partiellement réussie.

Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

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:

Štefan Füle, former European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, paid an official visit to Kyiv on February 7 2013 to discuss whether Ukraine was ready to sign the EU Association Agreement.

In that context, he presented the authorities with a document developed by the European Commission consisting of 19 indicators, the implementation of which allows Ukraine to sign the treaty establishing an association with the EU. The document had the status of a “non-paper".

I would like to obtain access to this non-paper.

Yours faithfully,

Daan Fonck

Politique européenne de voisinage et négociations d'élargissement

Dear Mr. Fonck,

Thank you for your request for access to documents.

Unfortunately, you have not indicated your postal address that is required for registering and handling your request in line with the procedural requirements. Please send us your full postal address at your earliest convenience. Pending your reply, we reserve the right to refuse the registration of your request.

You may, of course, use directly the electronic form for entering your request:

http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/...

Kind regards,

European Commission
DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations
NEAR Access to Documents
[DG NEAR request email]

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Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

Thank you for your response.
My postal address is:

Daan Fonck
Faculty of Social Sciences
Parkstraat 45/3602
B-3000 Leuven
Belgium

Yours faithfully,

Daan Fonck

Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

According to Regulation 1049/2001 the applicant simply has to make a written request in any form, including electronic form. There is no further requirement to give any personal details such as a postal address. Article 6.1 of the Regulation says "Applications for access to a document shall be made in any written form, including electronic form, in one of the languages referred to in Article 314 of the EC Treaty and in a sufficiently precise manner to enable the institution to identify the document. The applicant is not obliged to state reasons for the application."

However, not willing to delay the process, please find my work address below.

Daan Fonck
Faculty of Social Sciences
Parkstraat 45/3602
3000 Leuven
Belgium

Yours faithfully,

Daan Fonck

Politique européenne de voisinage et négociations d'élargissement

Dear Mr. Fonck,

Thank you for your prompt reply. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 24/09/2018 under reference number GestDem 2018/4967.

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 15/10/2018. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

You have lodged your application via the AsktheEU.org website. Please note that this 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.

Please note also that 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.

With respect to your questions regarding the provision of a postal address, please find our explanations below.

On 1 April 2014, the postal address became a mandatory feature for the purpose of introducing a request for access to documents.

The decision to ask for a postal address from applicants for access to documents was triggered by the following considerations:

• The need to obtain legal certainty as regards the date of receipt of the reply by the applicant under Regulation 1049/2001. Indeed, as foreseen by Article 297 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), […] decisions which specify to whom they are addressed, shall be notified to those to whom they are addressed and shall take effect upon such notification. Replies triggering the possibility for administrative or judicial redress are therefore transmitted via registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt. This requires an indication of a valid postal address by the applicant;

• The need to direct the Commission's scarce resources first of all to those requests which have been filed by "real" applicants. With only a compulsory indication of an e-mail address, applicants can easily introduce requests under an invented identity or under the identity of a third person. Asking for a postal address helps the Commission to protect the administration, as well as other citizens and legal persons, from abuse;

• For similar reasons, asking for a compulsory indication of a postal address enables the Commission services to verify whether Article 6(3) of the Regulation, on voluminous requests, is being evaded by introducing several requests under different identities. Indeed, in its Ryanair judgment, the General Court confirmed that Article 6(3) cannot be evaded by splitting the application into a number of applications. The Commission would like to point out that, in 2012/2013, it received some 57 confirmatory requests from what it suspects to be one single applicant operating under 13 different identities;

• Knowing whether the applicant is an EU resident in the sense of Article 2(1) of Regulation 1049/2001 is a precondition for the purpose of correctly applying the exception in Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001 (protection of the privacy and integrity of the individual), which has to be interpreted in accordance with Data Protection Regulation 45/2001. Article 9 of Regulation 45/2001 requires the adequacy of the level of protection afforded by the third country or international organisation when transmitting personal data to third-country residents or legal persons. It follows that, in case of requests for documents which include personal data, the correct application of the data protection rules cannot be ensured in the absence of a postal address enabling the Commission to ascertain that the minimum data protection standards will be respected.

All of these considerations show that the request for and the consequent processing of a postal address is not only appropriate but also strictly necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest within the meaning of Article 5 (a) of Data Protection Regulation 45/2001, namely providing a smooth and effective access to documents.

Yours faithfully,

European Commission
DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations
NEAR Access to Documents
[DG NEAR request email]

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EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Fonck,

On behalf of Mr Visentin please find attached the reply to your request for access to documents.

Yours sincerely,

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (AD)
[email address]
SG.AFFGEN.2 – Parliamentary Affairs

Dear EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

Many thanks for the information provided, which is highly appreciated. Just for clarification, did this document with indicators belong to a more generic document or letter outlining or explaining the reforms? The reason I ask is that the tile of this document mentions that it is an 'annex' to another document.

In that case, I would also kindly like obtain access to the main document to which the current file is annexed.

Many thanks for your response.

Yours sincerely,

Daan Fonck

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

Dear Mr Fonck,

Thank you for your enquiry which we sent to the responsible division.

Yours sincerely,

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (AD)
[email address]
SG.AFFGEN.2 – Parliamentary Affairs

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

Dear Mr Fonck,

Our services are still looking for the requested document. Exceptionally, we need to extend the deadline for reply by additional 15 working days.

Thank you for your understanding,
Yours sincerely,

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (AD)
[email address]
SG.AFFGEN.2 – Parliamentary Affairs

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

Dear Mr Fonck,

Would you be so kind as to be patient for a some more days for the reply.
We will make every effort to process your request as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding,
Yours sincerely,

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (AD)
[email address]
SG.AFFGEN.2 – Parliamentary Affairs

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Fonck,

On behalf of Mr Visentin please find attached the reply to your request for access to documents.

Yours faithfully,

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (AD)
[email address]
SG.AFFGEN.2 - Parliamentary Affairs

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Fonck,

On behalf of Mr Visentin please find attached the reply to your request for access to documents.

Yours faithfully,

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (AD)
[email address]
SG.AFFGEN.2 - Parliamentary Affairs

Dear Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations,

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 'non-paper Commission of February 7, 2013 (Ukraine - Association Agreement)'.

The EEAS has refused my request based on Article 4(1)(a) line 3 of Regulation 1049/2001, arguing that "it could risk undermining the international relations".

I find the argumentation not justified given that the matters discussed concern the potential signing of an Association Agreement, which in the meantime has already been concluded. Moreover, the briefing had been oriented towards a government which is no longer in power in Ukraine. The briefing had been prepared and delivered by a former European Commissioner. Given these elements, I cannot understand on which grounds the content of this briefing cannot be revealed, even not in part.

Therefore, I would kindly like to ask you to reconsider your position.

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/non_...

Yours faithfully,

Daan Fonck

Politique européenne de voisinage et négociations d'élargissement

Dear Sir,

Since 1 January 2011, external relations policy, which was previously under the responsibility of DG RELEX, has been transferred to the European External Action Service (EEAS).

Given that the document request that you submitted comes under this policy domain, please send your request directly to the EEAS at: [email address].

We inform you that your request has been cancelled in the Commission database.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require further information.

Kind regards,

Carlos Remis
SG.C.1
Transparence
Berl. 05/315

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EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

Dear Mr Fonk,

This message is an acknowledgement of receipt for your confirmatory application requesting a review of our reply dated 23 November 2018, under Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (which the EEAS is also respecting).

Your confirmatory application has the same reference number 2018/155, as the initial one. Please refer to this number in any further correspondence.

In accordance with the Regulation, you will receive a reply within 15 working days from registration of the application, i.e. by 8 January 2019.

Yours faithfully,

EEAS Access to Documents
[email address]
SG.AFFGEN.2 – Parliamentary Affairs

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

Dear Mr Fonck,

Our services are still examining your request for access to documents. This email is to inform you that our services will need to extend the time limit for another 15 working days, i.e. by 29 January 2019, as provided in the Regulation 1049/2001.
Thank you for your understanding.

Yours sincerely,

EEAS Access to Documents (AD)
[email address]
SG.AFFGEN.2 – Parliamentary Affairs

EEAS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS,

2 Attachments

Dear Mr Fonck,

 

On behalf of Director-General Di Vita, please find attached the reply to
your confirmatory request for access to documents.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

EEAS Access to Documents (AD)

[1][email address]

SG.AFFGEN.2 – Parliamentary Affairs

 

 

 

 

References

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