Dear European Economic and Social Committee,

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:

Per diems paid to EESC members, broken down by individual members and by dates and reason, since 1 January 2019.

Yours faithfully,

Nikolaj Nielsen

DHL Service Point
EPICERIE LIBRAIRIE POUYA
CHAUSSEE D'ALSEMBERG 9
1060 SINT-GILLIS
Brussels

access2documents, Comité économique et social européen

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

Thank you for your e-mail and interest in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

The European Economic and Social Committee hereby acknowledges receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 29/04/2021 under reference ICD-AD-07/2021.

All requests for public access to documents are treated in compliance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents and the relevant Decision of the European Economic and Social Committee No 2003/603/EC of 1 July 2003 on public access to European Economic and Social Committee documents

In accordance with the above-mentioned rules, your application will be handled within 15 working days upon registration of your request.

The European Economic and Social Committee reserves the right to ask for additional information regarding your identity in order to verify compliance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 and the European Economic and Social Committee's Decision.

Your attention is drawn to the fact that you have lodged your application via the AsktheEU.org website, which is a private website not officially related to the European Economic and Social Committee. Therefore, the European Economic and Social Committee cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.

Yours sincerely,

The Information Centre and Document Management Sector

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access2documents, Comité économique et social européen

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

We refer to your request with regard to access to information registered on 29 April 2021, ICD-AD-07/2021.

Your request is currently being handled. However, due to the complexity of the process, we will not be in a position to finalize the reply to your application within the given time limit.

Therefore, we are obliged to extend the deadline by a further 15 working days in accordance with article 8 of Decision 2003/603/EC regarding public access to EESC documents.

We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.

Yours faithfully,
The Information Centre and Data Management Sector

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Nikolaj Nielsen

Dear access2documents,

By law and under all circumstances, you should have responded by now.

Yours sincerely,

Nikolaj Nielsen

access2documents, Comité économique et social européen

Dear Mr. Nielsen,
 
We refer to your request with regard to access to information registered
on 29 April 2021, ICD-AD-07/2021.
 
In accordance with article 8 of Decision 2003/603/EC regarding public
access to EESC documents, the deadline has been extended by 15 working
days, as your application relates to the consultation of a large number of
documents. We informed you of this extension with our email of 21/05/2021.
 
Therefore the new deadline is set on 14/06/2021.
 
Yours faithfully,
The Information Centre and Data Management Sector
 
 
 

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access2documents, Comité économique et social européen

1 Attachment

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

 

We refer to your request with regard to access to information registered
on 29 April 2021, ICD-AD-07/2021.

 

Pursuant to your access to documents request, please find enclosed a table
with the requested information. Please note that, in line with the
Ombudsman's decision on case 1/2020/MIG, the names of the members have
been blanked out and some meetings have not been disclosed as they could
lead to the identification of individual members. The attached table does
not therefore contain personal data, since it is fully anonymized, but
still provides the information requested, which can be shared in
compliance with data protection rules.

 

On the basis of this reply, the European Economic and Social Committee
considers your application as handled and the file closed.

 

Yours faithfully,

The Information Centre and Data Management Sector

 

_____________________________________________
From: access2documents
Sent: lundi 31 mai 2021 20:20
To: [FOI #9390 email]
Subject: RE: ICD-AD-07/2021 - access to documents request - Per diems

 

 

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

 

We refer to your request with regard to access to information registered
on 29 April 2021, ICD-AD-07/2021.

 

In accordance with article 8 of Decision 2003/603/EC regarding public
access to EESC documents, the deadline has been extended by 15 working
days, as your application relates to the consultation of a large number of
documents. We informed you of this extension with our email of 21/05/2021.

 

Therefore the new deadline is set on 14/06/2021.

 

Yours faithfully,

The Information Centre and Data Management Sector

 

 

 

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Nikolaj Nielsen

Dear European Economic and Social Committee,

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 'Per diems'.

I am requesting all the names in this list. I would like to recall that you provided the names of the members who received per diems to me in a separate request in July 12, 2019.

It is unclear to me as why you are with holding these names now, aside from the fact that I am a journalist and will report on this. So please explain the legal basis of your decision and why this differs today, as compared to July 12, 2019?

Yours faithfully,

Nikolaj Nielsen

DHL Service Point

EPICERIE LIBRAIRIE POUYA

CHAUSSEE D'ALSEMBERG 9

1060 SINT-GILLIS

Brussels

access2documents, Comité économique et social européen

Dear Mr Nielsen,

Thank you for your e-mail and interest in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

The European Economic and Social Committee hereby acknowledges receipt of your confirmatory application for access to documents, which was registered on 17/06/2021 under reference ICD-AD-10/2021.

All requests for public access to documents are treated in compliance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents and the relevant Decision of the European Economic and Social Committee No 2003/603/EC of 1 July 2003 on public access to European Economic and Social Committee documents.

In accordance with the above-mentioned rules, your application will be handled within 15 working days upon registration of your request.

The European Economic and Social Committee reserves the right to ask for additional information regarding your identity in order to verify compliance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 and the European Economic and Social Committee's Decision.

Your attention is drawn to the fact that you have lodged your application via the AsktheEU.org website, which is a private website not officially related to the European Economic and Social Committee. Therefore, the European Economic and Social Committee cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.

Yours sincerely,

The Information Centre and Document Management Sector

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access2documents, Comité économique et social européen

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

We refer to your email of 17 June 2021, by which you request, pursuant to Regulation No 1049/2001, a review of the position taken by the European economic and Social Committee in reply to your initial application registered on 29 April 2021, ICD-AD-07/2021.

In your confirmatory application you state:

"I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Per diems'.
I am requesting all the names in this list. I would like to recall that you provided the names of the members who received per diems to me in a separate request in July 12, 2019.
It is unclear to me as why you are with holding these names now, aside from the fact that I am a journalist and will report on this. So please explain the legal basis of your decision and why this differs today, as compared to July 12, 2019?"

Following up to your confirmatory request, please note the following:

A case-by-case assessment of the necessity, proportionality and respect of legal requirements of the requests is always required, regardless of the outcome of previous similar requests.

The present request involves information containing personal data about identified persons, and disclosure of such data therefore falls under the scope of Regulation 1725/2018 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 "on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data".

Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001 provides that the EU institutions shall refuse access to a document where disclosure would undermine the protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual, which provision must be implemented in accordance with the relevant EU law on the protection of personal data.

In this line the Ombudsman's decision on case 1/2020/MIG stating on a similar request of yours, has clearly indicated: "The European Economic and Social Committee should disclose an anonymised version of the table […] removing any information that it considers would allow for the identification of the data subjects". The EESC has followed this indication in its reply of 14 June 2021.

After this careful consideration of your confirmatory application, the EESC regrets to inform you that no further access to documents can be granted, as the disclosure of the identified documents is prevented by the exception to the right of public access to documents, laid down in Article
4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001.

On the basis of this reply, the European Economic and Social Committee considers your application as handled and the file closed.

Best regards,
Information Centre and Document Management Sector

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