Olli Rehn's letters to member state governments about EU economic governance

En attente d'une révision interne par Affaires économiques et financières a propos de leur gestion de la demande.

Dear Economic and Financial Affairs (ECFIN),

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting the following Commission documents:

all letters (also by email) from European Commissioner Olli Rehn and his cabinet (and other ECFIN staff) to European Union member state governments since January 1st 2011 concerning the implementation of the EU's economic governance, including:
- the European Semester
- Excessive Deficit Procedure
- the Excessive Imbalance Procedure
- the National Reform Programme
- the Stability or Convergence Programmes
- the Stability and Growth Pact
- Council Directive on requirements for budgetary frameworks of the Member States
- Proposal for regulation on strengthening economic and budgetary surveillance (COM (2011) 819 final)
- Proposal for regulation on common provisions for monitoring and assessing draft budgetary plans and ensuring the correction of excessive deficit (COM (2011) 821 final)
- The Euro Plus Pact
- the scoreboard of macroeconomic indicators
- the Treaty on Stability, coordination and governance in the Economic and Monetary Union

and others elements of 'economic governance'.

Yours faithfully,

Olivier Hoedeman

Affaires économiques et financières

Ares(2012)276568

Dear Sir,

Subject: Your application for access to documents about EU Economic governance

We refer to your e-mail dated 20/02/2012 in which you make a request for access to documents.

Your application concerns a very large number of documents, which need to be assessed individually. Such a detailed analysis cannot be carried out within the normal time limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation 1049/2001.
However, the Regulation also provides for a possibility to confer with applicants in order to find a fair solution when an application concerns a very large number of documents. Article 6(3) provides that "in the event of an application relating to a very long document or to very large number of documents, the institution concerned may confer with the applicant informally, with a view to finding a fair solution".
Based on this provision, we would kindly ask you whether you could narrow down the scope of your request, so as to reduce it to a more manageable amount of documents. If that is not possible and if you maintain your request for access to all documents concerned by your application, we propose to handle your application in successive stages. If you accept this proposal, you could indicate an order of priority, which we will follow as much as possible in handling your application. You will receive, at regular intervals, batches of documents which have been cleared for release or a reasoned reply explaining why some documents cannot be disclosed.

Yours faithfully,

Christophe Houyoux

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Affaires économiques et financières

Ares(2012)308874

 

 

Dear Sir,

 

Subject:               Your application for access to
documents about private sector lobbies

 

We refer to your e-mail dated 20/02/2012 in which you make a request for
access to documents.

 

Your application concerns a very large number of documents, which need to
be assessed individually. Such a detailed analysis cannot be carried out
within the normal time limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation
1049/2001.

However, the Regulation also provides for a possibility to confer with
applicants in order to find a fair solution when an application concerns a
very large number of documents. Article 6(3) provides that "in the event
of an application relating to a very long document or to very large number
of documents, the institution concerned may confer with the applicant
informally, with a view to finding a fair solution".

Based on this provision, we would kindly ask you whether you could narrow
down the scope of your request or be more specific on the files you are
interested in, so as to reduce it to a more manageable amount of
documents.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Christophe Houyoux

 

 

Olivier Hoedeman

Dear Christophe Houyoux,

in response to your suggestion to narrow the scope, here a revised request:

all letters (also by email) from European Commissioner Olli Rehn and his cabinet (and other ECFIN staff) to European Union member state governments since July 1st 2011 concerning the implementation of the EU's economic governance, including:
- the European Semester
- Excessive Deficit Procedure and Stability or Convergence Programmes
- the Excessive Imbalance Procedure (including the scoreboard of macroeconomic indicators)
- Proposal for regulation on common provisions for monitoring and assessing draft budgetary plans and ensuring the correction of excessive deficit (COM (2011) 821 final)
- the Treaty on Stability, coordination and governance in the Economic and Monetary Union

Yours faithfully,

Olivier Hoedeman

Affaires économiques et financières

Dear M. Hoedeman;

Thank you for your replies.

I will contact you as soon as I have some feedback.

Best regards.

Christophe Houyoux

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Olivier Hoedeman

Dear Christophe Houyoux,

I would like to remind you of my access-to-documents request regarding Olli Rehn's letters to member state governments about EU economic governance. I last heard from you three weeks ago.

Yours faithfully,

Olivier Hoedeman

Affaires économiques et financières

5 Attachments

Ares(2012)504155
 
 
Dear Sir,
 
Thank you for your e-mail requesting access to documents under Regulation
No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and
Commission documents.
 
We enclose a copy of the documents that we have identified and which we
hope will meet your needs. I must however, remind you that they cannot be
reproduced or disseminated for commercial purposes unless the Commission
has first been consulted.
 
 
 
 
 
Yours faithfully,
 
Christophe Houyoux
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Olivier Hoedeman

Dear Christophe Houyoux (Economic and Financial Affairs - ECFIN),

Thank you for your response to my e-mail requesting access to documents and the five letters you included. The five letters (all dated 11 November 2011) are to the governments of Belgium, Cyprus, Poland, Hungary and Malta, but it would seem likely that similar letters had also been sent to other EU member state governments with substantial budget deficits. Also, it would seem likely that these are not the only letters sent to these governments and that follow-up correspondence has taken place. I would therefore like to request a review of the Commission's response to my request, including a new search of the commission's files.

Yours faithfully,

Olivier Hoedeman