Taxonomy Jan-May 2021
From: Belen Balanya, Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels.
6 May 2021 RE: Access to Documents related to EU taxonomy for sustainable activities
Dear DG energy, DG Clima, Dg GROW, Secretariat General, DG FISMA, DG ECFIN
Referring to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to EU documents, I would herewith like to ask for access to the following:
1- all correspondence (including email) between 1st january 2021 and 6th May 2021 between Commissioner Simson, Commissioner Timmermans, Commissioner Breton, President van der Leyen, Commissioner McGuinness, Commissioner Gentiloni and/or their cabinets and/or officials from DG Energy, DG Clima, DG Grow, DG Fisma and Secretariat General on one hand and stakeholders on the other, where EU taxonomy for sustainable activities was addressed.
2 - list of meetings/videocalls/calls between 1st December 2020 and 6th May 2021 between officials and/or representatives of the European Commission and stakeholders where the issue of EU taxonomy for sustainable activities was addressed.
3 - minutes of the meetings/videocalls/calls mentioned above.
I would like to make clear I prefer you produce the documents on a rolling basis.
At no point should the Commission’s search for—or deliberations concerning—certain documents delay the production of others that the Commission has already retrieved and elected to produce.
To the extent possible, we prefer the documents in electronic format. Documents that cannot be sent in electronic format should be sent to Corporate Europe Observatory, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels.
Should my request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions referring to specific exemptions in the regulation. Also I expect the partial release of documents, in case of partial exemption according to article 4.6.
I reserve the right to appeal.
Please confirm having received this application. I look forward to your reply within 15 business days, according to the regulation.
Thank you for your assistance.
Belen Balanya
Corporate Europe Observatory
Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [3]themeData
Link: [4]colorSchemeMapping
[5]Your access to documents request - Taxonomy Jan-May 2021 - Ref. GESTDEM
2021/3014 - Ares(2021)3069952
Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG ENER request email]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[DG ENER request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Madam,
Thank you for your e-mail of 6 May 2021. We hereby acknowledge receipt of
your application for access to documents, which was registered on
07/05/2021 under reference number GESTDEM 2021/3014.
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 2 June 2021. In case this time limit needs
to be extended, you will be informed in due course.
You have lodged your application via 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 Commission.
For further information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s
privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the 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 that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
[6]Privacy statement - access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (IC)
European Commission
Secretariat-General
SG.C1
[email address]
[7]cid:image001.gif@01D46531.06A8B6B0
Dear Madam,
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents,
which was registered on 16/06/2021 under reference number GESTDEM
2021/3991.
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
07/07/2021.
In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due
course. Please apologise for the delay in registration and we assure you
that we will do our utmost to send a reply as soon as possible.
You have lodged your application via 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 Commission. For further information on your
rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the 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 that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our For
information on how we process your personal data visit our page [1]Privacy
statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
[2]cid:image001.png@01D03ECB.9741CEE0
European Commission
DG Energy
DG ENERGY – Access to documents team
Email: [3][email address]
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
3. mailto:[email address]
Dear Belen,
Due to the amount of documents and the size of the files, the transmission of documents will be done in several shipments.
Please find here the first transmission.
Dear Ms Balanya,
We refer to your e-mail of 06 May 2021 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on 16 June 2021 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 expired on 07
July 2021.
An extended time limit is needed for thorough analysis as to the
availability of the documents requested.
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 29 July 2021.
We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
[1]cid:image001.png@01D03ECB.9741CEE0
European Commission
DG Energy
DG ENERGY – Access to documents team
Email: [2][email address]
References
Visible links
2. mailto:[email address]
Dear Ms Balanya,
We refer to your e-mail of 6 May 2021 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on the next day under the above-mentioned
reference number. You requested access to “1- all correspondence
(including email) between 1st January 2021 and 6th May 2021 between
Commissioner Simson, Commissioner Timmermans, Commissioner Breton,
President van der Leyen, Commissioner McGuinness, Commissioner Gentiloni
and/or their cabinets and/or officials from DG Energy, DG Clima, DG Grow,
DG Fisma and Secretariat General on one hand and stakeholders on the
other, where EU taxonomy for sustainable activities was addressed. 2 -
list of meetings/video calls/calls between 1st December 2020 and 6th May
2021 between officials and/or representatives of the European Commission
and stakeholders where the issue of EU taxonomy for sustainable activities
was addressed. 3 - minutes of the meetings/video calls/calls mentioned
above”.
We are sincerely sorry to contact you after such delay. Your application
concerns a very large number of documents, which need to be assessed
individually. They belong to many different Cabinets and services across
the Commission. In addition, many of them originate from third parties.
The analysis of all these documents, together with the need to consult the
third parties concerned in accordance with Article 4(4) of the Regulation,
cannot be carried out within the normal time limits set out in Article 7
of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
However, Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 also provides for a
possibility to confer with an applicant informally with a view to finding
a fair solution when an application relates to a very long document or
concerns a very large number of documents. In accordance with the case law
of the EU Courts, such a solution can only concern the content or the
number of documents requested, not the deadline for replying. This means
that the scope of the request must be reduced in a way that would enable
its processing within the extended deadline of 15 + 15 working days.
Based on the above provision, we would kindly ask you whether you would
agree to narrowing down the scope of your application, so as to reduce it
to a more manageable amount of documents. Following our estimates, we
would be able to send you a list of meetings/video calls/calls between 1st
December 2020 and 6th May 2021 between FISMA officials and stakeholders
where the issue of EU taxonomy for sustainable activities was addressed
and the minutes of those meetings (when available) in the extended
deadline of 15 + 15 working days from the moment of your agreement to this
fair solution proposal.
In order to enable us to respond to you as soon as possible, we would ask
you for a swift reply to our invitation to propose a fair solution, within
five working days at the latest by e-mail to: [1][email address] (cc
[2][email address]). If you have any questions, you can
contact us at the same e-mail addresses.
In the absence of a reply within five working days, we will unilaterally
restrict the scope of your application to those parts that can be dealt
with within the extended deadline of 30 working days as indicated in the
fair solution proposal above.
Thank you in advance for your understanding.
Yours faithfully,
Acting Head of Unit
Andrei Gurin
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]
Dear Ms Balanya,
We refer to your e-mail of 6 May 2021 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered 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.
An extended time limit is needed as our services are finishing the
treatment of the documents. 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 7 October 2021, but we are doing our outmost to send you our reply well
ahead of that date.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
FISMA B2
Dear Ms Balanya,
Please find attached a reply to your request for access to documents,
registered under the reference GestDem 2021/3027
According to the standard procedure, a reply is usually also sent to you
by registered post. Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary
health and security measures currently in force during the COVID-19
pandemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical
staff to telework, we are unfortunately not in a position to follow this
procedure until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm receipt of the present
e-mail by replying to [1][email address] and to
[2][email address]
Yours sincerely,
Fisma B2 Secretariat
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]
Dear Belen,
As explained in the e-mail under Reference Ares(2022)1578015, we are sending again all the documents.
Due to the amount of documents and size of them, the transmission of documents will be done in four e-mails.
Kind regards
SG D3