Shell correspondence
Dear Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union,
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:
1. All correspondence, including emails sent and received, since 01/01/2018 between the Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union Valdis Dombrovskis, his cabinet, his officials, any other representatives of DG FISMA, and representatives from Royal Dutch Shell.
2. All documentation (including but not limited to all email correspondence, attendance lists, agendas, background papers, and minutes/notes) relating to the meeting between Royal Dutch Shell and Jan Ceyssens, Cabinet member of Valdis Dombrovskis on 22/11/2018
Please produce the documents on a rolling basis. I would prefer that the Commission ’s search and deliberations concerning particular documents not delay the production of documents the Commissions has already retrieved and decided to produce.
Yours faithfully,
Edward Collins
40 Bermondsey Street,
London.
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/...
[1]Ares(2018)6417533 - RE: access to documents request - Shell
correspondence --- Ref. Gestdem 2018/6726
Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG FISMA request email]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG FISMA request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 13/12/2018. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on
13/12/2018 under reference number GestDem 2018/6726.
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 15/01/2019. 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 third-party 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 that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the European Commission. For further information
on your rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running that website usually publishes
the content of applicants’ correspondence with the European Commission on
that website. This includes the personal data that you may have
communicated to the European Commission (e.g. your private postal
address).
Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.
If you do not wish your correspondence with the European Commission to be
published on the AsktheEU.org website, you can provide us with an
alternative, private e-mail address for further correspondence.
In that case, the European Commission will send all future electronic
correspondence addressed to you only to that private address.
Yours faithfully,
Carlos Remis
SG.C.1
Transparence
Berl. 05/315
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Ares(2019)228403 - You request for acess to documents GESTDEM 2018/6726
Sent by BOULOUQUE Didier (FISMA) <[email address]>. All
responses have to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par BOULOUQUE Didier (FISMA) <[email address]>.
Toutes les réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Mr Collins,
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No
2018/6726
We refer to your e-mail dated 15/12/2018 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on the same date under the above mentioned
reference number.
Your application is currently being handled. However, we will not be in a
position to complete the handling of your application within the time
limit of 15 working days, which expires today on 15/1/2019.
An extended time limit is needed as your application
· in order to retrieve the documents requested, large files have
to be examined;
· and (part of) the documents requested could originate from third
parties which have been consulted;
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to documents. The new time limit expires on 5/2/2019.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
European Commission
Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and
Capital Markets Union
Unit A2" Inter-institutional Relations, planning and stakeholders'
relations"
1049 Brussels, Belgium
web: [6]http://ec.europa.eu/finance
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/cid:filelist.xml@01D4AD03.04CFA050
2. file:///tmp/cid:editdata.mso
3. file:///tmp/~~themedata~~
4. file:///tmp/~~colorschememapping~~
5. https://webgate.ec.testa.eu/Ares/ext/doc...
6. http://ec.europa.eu/finance
Dear Mr Collins,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 13 December 2018, in which you make a
request for access to documents, registered under the above mentioned
reference number.
Please accept our apologies for the time taken in answering your access to
documents request which concerned the following information:
1. All correspondence, including emails sent and received, since
01/01/2018 between the Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial
Services and Capital Markets Union Valdis Dombrovskis, his cabinet, his
officials, any other representatives of DG FISMA, and representatives from
Royal Dutch Shell.
2. All documentation (including but not limited to all email
correspondence, attendance lists, agendas, background papers, and
minutes/notes) relating to the meeting between Royal Dutch Shell and Jan
Ceyssens, Cabinet member of Valdis Dombrovskis on 22/11/2018.”
After a search, only 2 documents of correspondence have been identified as
falling within the scope of your request: the letter from ERT dated 20
July 2018 and the exchange of e-mails between 6 and 28 September 2018. It
was ERT who had requested a meeting on behalf of several companies,
including the Shell Companies.
Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, I have come to the
conclusion that they may be partially disclosed.
Some parts of the documents have been blanked out for data protection
reasons as their disclosure is prevented by exception to the right of
access laid down in Article 4 of this Regulation. Some of the documents to
which you request access contain personal data, in particular names,
contact details, hand-written signatures. Personal data can only be
transmitted under specific exceptional conditions, including if ‘[t]he
recipient establishes that it is necessary to have the data transmitted
for a specific purpose in the public interest.
According to Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation 2018/1725, the European
Commission also only has to examine the further conditions for a lawful
processing of personal data if the recipient has established that it is
necessary to have the data transmitted for a specific purpose in the
public interest. In your request, you do not put forward any arguments to
establish the necessity to have the data transmitted for a specific
purpose in the public interest.
Notwithstanding the above, please note that there are reasons to assume
that the legitimate interests of the data subjects concerned would be
prejudiced by disclosure of the personal data reflected in the documents.
Consequently, I conclude that, pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation
1049/2001, access cannot be granted to the personal data, as the need to
obtain access thereto for a purpose in the public interest has not been
substantiated and there is no reason to think that the legitimate
interests of the individuals concerned would not be prejudiced by
disclosure of the personal data concerned.
Should you disagree with the assessment that the redacted data are
personal data which can only be disclosed if such disclosure is legitimate
under the applicable rules on the protection of personal data, you are
entitled, in accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, to
submit a confirmatory application requesting the Commission to review this
position.
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days
upon receipt of this letter to the Secretariat-General of the Commission
at the following address:
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Unit C.1. ‘Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents’
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Bruxelles, or by email to: [1][DG FISMA request email]
Yours sincerely,
FISMA Unit A2
[2]cid:image001.gif@01D3F353.68818470
European Commission
Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and
Capital Markets Union
Unit A2 - Policy planning and implementation, inter-institutional
relations
SPA 2, 09/044
B-1000 Brussels/Belgium
[3]cid:image004.png@01D3F354.9812D5D0
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[DG FISMA request email]