Tender file for "Provision of Legal Services for FRA" and related Contracts concluded with Allber&Geiger and Mr Haris Tagaras

En attente d'une révision interne par Agence des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne a propos de leur gestion de la demande.

Dear European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

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:

*Tender File for procurement procedure "Provision of Legal Services for FRA" and the contracts concluded with Mr Haris Tagaras and AlberGeiger firm http://www.albergeiger.com/about-us.php
A template for the format of contract is provided here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/297/r...

*List of contracts for legal services awarded in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. A template is provided here http://www.ecb.eu/ecb/jobsproc/proc/pdf/...

Yours faithfully,

Kurt Weiss

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Agence des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne

Dear Mr. Weiss,

Thank you for your e-mail. We hereby confirm receipt of your application for access to documents on 14 June 2013, which was registered under reference number 2013-incoming-000896.

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 05 July 2013. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

Yours faithfully,

Waltraud Heller
FRA Communication Team

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]
Visit us on: http://fra.europa.eu | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn

The EU as a community of values: safeguarding fundamental rights in times of crisis - read more in the FRA 2012 Annual Report Focus, due out 18 June
Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European Union

Afficher les sections citées

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Agence des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne

2 Attachments

Vienna, 05 July 2013
2013-outgoing-001069

Subject: Your request of access to documents registered under reference number 2013-incoming-000896

Dear Mr Weiss,

We refer to your email of 14 June 2013 and our reply of 17 June 2013 requesting access to documents containing following information:

1) Tender file "Provision of Legal Services for FRA" and contracts concluded with Mr Haris Tagaras and Alber & Geiger firm;
2) List of contracts for legal services awarded in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Contracts for legal services within the meaning of Annex IIB to Directive 2004/18/EC of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts require a specific procedure provided for in Article 126 of the implementing rules of the financial regulation without prior publication of a contract notice.

With regard to above request we have identified following documents, which are attached:

1) 2010 02 08 letter from Alber&Geiger EU law firm;
2) 2010 02 08 letter to Mr Wagenbaur;
3) 2010 08 07 email from Mr Wagenbaur;
4) 2010 08 09 letter to Mr Wagenbaur;
5) 2010 12 17 Note to the file: Commitment of legal expenditures for staff matters;
6) 2010 12 20 letter to Mr Wagenbaur;
7) 2011 09 16 email from Mr Wagenbaur;
8) 2011 09 29 letter to Mr Wagenbaur;
9) 2011 12 20 purchase order;
10) 2012 02 13 purchase order;
11) 2012 03 16 purchase order;
12) 2012 09 04 purchase order;
13) 2012 10 01 purchase order;
14) 2012 10 08 purchase order;
15) 2012 10 22 purchase order;
16) 2012 10 30 purchase order;
17) 2012 11 15 purchase order;
18) 2012 12 03 purchase order;
19) 2013 02 21 purchase order;
20) 2013 04 24 purchase order;

Please note that pursuant to Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, you may make a confirmatory application asking FRA to reconsider its position. Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days upon receipt of this email to FRA general e-mail: [email address]

Yours sincerely,

The FRA Information Team

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]
Visit us on: http://fra.europa.eu | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn

The EU as a community of values: safeguarding fundamental rights in times of crisis - read more in the FRA 2012 Annual Report Focus.
Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European Union

Afficher les sections citées

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Agence des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne

20 Attachments

Dear Mr. Weiss,

Please find attached the annexes mentioned in our previous e-mail.

Yours sincerely,

The FRA Information Team
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]
Visit us on: http://fra.europa.eu | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn

Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European Union
The EU as a community of values: safeguarding fundamental rights in times of crisis - read more in the FRA 2012 Annual Report Focus.

Dear European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights's handling of my FOI request 'Tender file for "Provision of Legal Services for FRA" and related Contracts concluded with Allber&Geiger and Mr Haris Tagaras'.

I hereby submit a confirmatory application and request a review of your decision not to grant me access to all requested documents.
Arguments:

Argument 1 - You did not grant me access to the Tender file for “Provision of Legal Services”, invoking that article 126 of Old Implementing Rules of the EU Financial Regulation would exempt FRA to publish a contract notice in order to award contracts for legal services.
I did not request access to Contract Notice for this Tender Procedure. I am aware that Article 126 IR reads as follows:
“1. Contracting authorities may use the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice, whatever the estimated value of the contract, in the following cases: (i) for contracts for legal services within the meaning of Annex IIB to Directive 2004/18/EC, provided that such contracts are appropriately advertised”.

I requested access to the Tender File for Legal Services, namely to following documents, part of the Tender File:

a) Invitations to Negotiate and the means of advertising, i.e. the name of newspapers where FRA advertised legal services or link to the relevant website of FRA where these services were advertised (see above: contracts for legal services have to be advertised appropriately).
b) The list of bidders invited to Negotiated Procedure
c) Terms of Reference for the type of legal services (i.e. staff issues, procurement issues, HR issues, etc),
d) Forms requested from bidders as eligibility criteria, selection criteria, etc
e) Evaluation Report and Award Decision.
f) Notification to all non-winner bidders and Notifications to successful bidder s - Alber and Geiger / Mr Bertrand Wagenbaur & Mr R. Wagenbaur and Mr Haris Tagaras , and any other lawyer not mentioned in your reply (see the lawyer who represented FRA in Procurement case before the General Court )
g) Framework Contract and Subsequent specific contacts awarded in the basis of the framework contract
h) Exclusion and selection criteria documents for bidders and their declaration of absence of conflict of interest.
i) any other relevant documents part of the Tender file.

Argument 2 - You did not provide me access to the Framework contract and subsequent specific contracts. You only provided me access to some Purchase Orders which you blanked (anonimized) in an inacceptable way and in total discordance with the meaning of the Regulation 2001/1049. In the purchase orders accessible from the links below even the name of services was blanked. Moreover, the Purchase orders reveals that FRA would have contracted acquisition of some goods and not services from Mr Bertrand Wagenbaur and Mr Haris Tagaras. Which these goods are? See the list of Purchase Orders below:

- Purchase Order of 24.04.2013 for Mr Wagenbaur – 7.100 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 21.02.2013 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 2.500 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 03.12.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 2.500 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 20.11.2012 for Mr Wagenbaur – 3.200 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 05.11.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 5.000 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 23.10.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 3.500 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 11.10.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 3.500 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 01.10.2012 for Mr Wagenbaur – 1.000 Euro (not signed by the Contractor – Mr Wagenbaur) http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 01.10.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 4.500 Euro (not signed by the Contractor – Mr Haris Tagaras) http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

As can be seen in the same date of 01.10.2012 FRA awarded 2 assignments: one for Mr Wagenbaur and one for Mr Tagaras. The purchase orders are not signed and the description of services is deleted. I request information if payments were done and if services were indeed delivered. Which are those services, for each contractor in part and for all contracts/purchase orders. Which are the staff cases Mr Tagaras dealt with and which are the staff cases Mr Wagenbaur dealt with. Are there any other lawyers employed by FRA and not listed in FRA reply?

NOTE - There was a procurement case brought against FRA ( Case T-397/11 accessible from here http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU... ). FRA was represented by Mr L. Christodoulou but the legal services provided by this lawyer are not listed in the FRA reply. I request access to Purchase Order or Contracts concluded with Mr L. Christodoulou and information on the amount paid by FRA to Mr L. Christodoulou.

- Purchase Order of 23.03.2012 for Mr Wagenbaur – 17.700 Euro http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...
I request information on the services contracted and how many staff issues are covered by that amount of 17.700 Euro. Why this amount is triple or even quadruples comparing with the rest of the FRA purchase orders? Why the amount charged at FRA is of 17.7 times higher than the amount charged at European Commission in this contract (1.000 Euro for oral proceedings) http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/297/r...

I also request information if this amount of 17.700 Euro is charged as lobbying activities, taking view that Alber and Geiger provides also these types of services. See here http://www.albergeiger.com/about-us.php ( “Alber & Geiger is a political lobbying powerhouse, a leading European government relations law firm and a top CJEU litigation firm”). And see also the letter from this lobbying firm to FRA http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

-Purchase Order of 14.02.2012 for Mr Wagenbaur – 1.500 Euro (No Contractor’s signature on the purchase order) http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

- Purchase Order of 20.12.2011 for Mr Wagenbaur – 2.400 Euro (No Contractor’s signature on the purchase order) http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...
- For this amount of 4.800 Euro (16.09.2011) there is no Purchase order listed in FRA reply http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r... I request access to all related documents and information.

- For this amount of 8.500 Euro (17.12.2010) there is no Purchase order listed in FRA reply
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...

http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...
I request access to all related documents and information.

- For this amount of 4.500 to 5.000 Euro (08.02.2010) there is no Purchase order listed in FRA reply http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/537/r...
I request access to all related documents and information.

Argument 3 – You did not grant me access to List of contracts awarded by FRA. please allow me to provide you the links to the new EU Financial Regulation and EC Rules of Application. As you can see there is an OBLIGATION on contracting authorities like FRA to publish a List of Contracts Awarded in every year. I request access to those lists which should include also the contracts for legal services (similar to model I provided to you previously – the one from ECB; see the link above in my first communication).

Link to new EU Financial Regulation:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU...
Link to the new IR now called RAP:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexU... See Article 134 “Use of a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice (Article 104 of the Financial Regulation)”

********

Finally I would like to stress that your reply triggered some new requests. Therefore I hereby request access to the following documents and information:

*amounts paid to the lawyers of the perpetrators or alleged perpetrators in case F-112/10 (reimbursements of amounts)

* amounts paid to lawyers and investigators in cases of allegation of harassment against top seniors of FRA http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/...
http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/...

* amounts paid in cases before EDPS like this ones and any other news cases
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/459/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/459/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/459/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/459/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/459/r...
* amounts paid to investigators nominated by Governing Board and or / FRA management Team.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.asktheeu.org/request/tender_f...

Yours faithfully,

Kurt Weiss

Dear EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA),

This is a kind reminder that my request for internal review has been introduced in due time, following your reply to my initial application and the deadline set by law for the second reply expired.

Yours sincerely,

Kurt Weiss

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Agence des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne

1 Attachment

To the attention of:

 

Mr Kurt Weiss

www.asktheeu.org

Vienna, 26 July 2013

2013-outgoing-001288

 

Subject:         Your request of access to documents registered under
reference number 2013-incoming-000896

 

Dear Mr Weiss,

 

Thank you for your confirmatory application received on 06 July 2013 with
regard to access to documents request registered under reference number
2013-incoming-000896.

 

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 on 26/07/2013 due to complexity of
your request, high volume of data to be examined and limited human
resources at the Agency’s disposal.

 

We will handle your request as quickly as possible. Please note that our
institution is currently approaching the summer break, and that we will
only be in a position to carefully examine a proposed reply to your
request by 10 September. We hope you would accept the extension of this
deadline.

 

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

 

Yours sincerely,

 

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]

Visit us on: [1]http://fra.europa.eu | [2]Facebook | [3]Twitter |
[4]YouTube | [5]LinkedIn

Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European
Union

The EU as a community of values: safeguarding fundamental rights in times
of crisis - [6]read more in the FRA 2012 Annual Report Focus.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.fra.europa.eu/
2. http://www.facebook.com/fundamentalrights
3. http://twitter.com/#!/EURightsAgency
4. http://youtube.com/user/EUAgencyFRA
5. http://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-funda...
6. http://fra.europa.eu/en/press-release/20...

Dear EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA),

Thank you for your reply.

As my request is currently in its second phase, i.e. confirmatory application, I agree with an extension time of 15 days as provided by Regulation 1049.

The proposal made by FRA (i.e. 10 September 2013) is too large and amounts to extension time for 3 confirmatory applications, taking view that FRA is already in delay.

However, in order to make a fair agreement I can add to the 15 days of extension provided in rules, 7 additional calendar days. I have as well to comply with related delivery time limits.

Consequently, I respectfully request FRA to comply with legal deadlines, to which it can add the above mentioned 7 additional calendar days. Thank you for your understanding.

Yours sincerely,

Kurt Weiss

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Agence des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne

6 Attachments

To the attention of:

 

Mr Kurt Weiss

www.asktheeu.org

Vienna, 30 August 2013

2013-outgoing-001441

 

Subject:         Your request of access to documents registered under
reference number 2013-incoming-000896

 

Dear Mr Weiss,

 

We refer to your email of 14 June 2013, and our reply of 17 June 2013 and
05 July, and your reply of 06 July 2013 submitting confirmatory
application.

 

Your initial application concerned the documents containing following
information:

 

1)     Tender file “Provision of Legal Services for FRA" and contracts
concluded with Mr Haris Tagaras and Alber & Geiger firm;

2)     List of contracts for legal services awarded in 2010, 2011, 2012
and 2013.

 

Having examined the documents requested in your initial application under
the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, we came to the conclusion
that they may be partially disclosed. These documents were sent to you in
a previous email of 5 July.

 

In your confirmatory application of 06 July you further specified to which
documents your request refers. We thoroughly examined your application and
reached following conclusions. For purpose of clarity our reply will
follow structure of your request. 

 

Part I

 

Under this point you requested access to following documents: “(…) the
Tender File for Legal Services, namely to following documents, part of the
Tender File: (…)”.

 

Please note that the Agency has no Framework Contract for the provision of
legal services.

 

Further, you requested tender documents and information related to
purchase orders enlisted herewith:

1.      “Purchase Order of 24.04.2013 for Mr Wagenbaur – 7.100 Euro”

2.       “Purchase Order of 21.02.2013 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 2.500 Euro”

3.       “Purchase Order of 03.12.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 2.500 Euro”

4.       “Purchase Order of 20.11.2012 for Mr Wagenbaur – 3.200 Euro”

5.       “Purchase Order of 05.11.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 5.000 Euro”

6.       “Purchase Order of 23.10.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 3.500 Euro”

7.       “Purchase Order of 11.10.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 3.500 Euro”

8.       “Purchase Order of 01.10.2012 for Mr Wagenbaur – 1.000 Euro (not
signed by the Contractor – Mr Wagenbaur)”

9.       “Purchase Order of 01.10.2012 for Mr Haris Tagaras – 4.500 Euro
(not signed by the Contractor – Mr Haris Tagaras)”

10.  “Purchase Order of 23.03.2012 for Mr Wagenbaur – 17.700 Euro”

11.  “Purchase Order of 14.02.2012 for Mr Wagenbaur – 1.500 Euro (No
Contractor’s signature on the purchase order)”

12.  “Purchase Order of 20.12.2011 for Mr Wagenbaur – 2.400 Euro (No
Contractor’s signature on the purchase order)”

13. “For this amount of 4.800 Euro (16.09.2011) there is no Purchase
order”

14.  “For this amount of 8.500 Euro (17.12.2010) there is no Purchase
order”

15.  “For this amount of 4.500 to 5.000 Euro (08.02.2010) there is no
Purchase order”

 

Since the documents concerned originate from a third party, the originator
of the document has been consulted. The author of the documents has
objected to disclosure of the documents.

 

Following an examination of the documents requested under the provisions
of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents and
taking into account the opinion of the third parties, we regret to inform
you that your application cannot be granted, as disclosure is prevented by
exceptions to the right of access laid down in Article 4(2) first indent
("commercial interests of a natural or legal person, including
intellectual property"). The documents concerned contain information of a
commercial nature the disclosure of which would harm the commercial
interests and/or commercial reputation of legal entities. The Agency is
bound by professional secrecy to ensure the confidentiality of the
documents it receives and is restricted in their use for the purpose of
evaluation of offers during tendering phase and execution of contracts. 

 

We have considered whether partial access could be granted to the
documents requested. Unfortunately, they are entirely covered by the
exceptions except for the purchase orders attached:

 

Annex I: Signed Purchase Order of 01.10.2012

Annex II: Signed Purchase Order of 01.10.2012

Annex III: Signed Purchase Order of 14.02.2012

Annex IV: Signed Purchase Order of 20.12.2011

Annex V: Low value contract “(…) for this amount of 4.800 Euro
(16.09.2011)”

Annex VI: Low value contract “(…) for this amount of 8.500 Euro
(17.12.2010”

Annex VII: Low value contract “(…) for this amount of 4.500 to 5.000 Euro
(08.02.2010)”.

 

The exceptions laid down in Article 4(2) of Regulation 1049/2001 apply
unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure of the
documents.

 

In the absence of any evidence of an overriding public interest to warrant
disclosure, the Agency may not waive this exception. Pursuant to Article
4(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, for such an overriding public interest to
exist, this interest, firstly has to be public and, secondly, overriding
i.e. must supersede the interests protected by virtue of Article 4(2) of
Regulation 1049/2001. We regret to inform you that your application failed
to provide arguments that would support existence of overriding public
interest. Mere interest in disclosing the document concerned does not
constitute a public interest that overrides the need for protection of the
legitimate commercial interests of the natural and legal persons concerned
and the institution’s decision-making process.

 

Part II

 

Question 1:

“You did not provide me access to the Framework contract and subsequent
specific contracts”.

 

Answer:

As informed above, the Agency has no Framework Contract for the provision
of legal services.

 

Question 2:

“In the purchase orders accessible from the links below even the name of
services was blanked. Moreover, the Purchase orders reveals that FRA would
have contracted acquisition of some goods and not services from Mr
Bertrand Wagenbaur and Mr Haris Tagaras. Which these goods are? See the
list of Purchase Orders below:”

 

 

Answer:

In your email you are asking which goods were purchased via purchase
orders that were disclosed to you on 05 July 2013. Please note that the
Agency may use purchase orders for the provision of services. In this case
“goods” should be understood as “services”. Unfortunately, we are unable
to disclose to you the description of services as this is protected by at
least two exceptions invoked in the Article 4(2) first and second intent
of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, which provides that the institutions
shall refuse access to a document where disclosure would undermine the
protection of commercial interests of a natural or legal person, including
intellectual property, court proceedings and legal advice. Having
carefully re-examined content of each purchase order we came to a
conclusion that disclosure to the public of information containing
description of services with detailed price components would be harmful
for the commercial interests of the entities concerned.

 

The exceptions laid down in Article 4(2) of Regulation 1049/2001 apply
unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure of the
document. For such an overriding public interest to exist, this interest,
firstly has to be public and, secondly, overriding i.e. must supersede the
interests protected by virtue of Article 4(2) of Regulation 1049/2001.
There is no evidence of public interest in disclosure in the sense of
Regulation (EC) 1049/2001that would allow us to waive the exception.
However, partial access to requested documents was granted and these we
provided to you on 05 July.

 

Question 3:

There was a procurement case brought against FRA (Case T-397/11 […]). FRA
was represented by Mr L. Christodoulou but the legal services provided by
this lawyer are not listed in the FRA reply. I request access to Purchase
Order or Contracts concluded with Mr L. Christodoulou and information on
the amount paid by FRA to Mr L. Christodoulou.”

 

Answer:

Please note that no contract was awarded to Mr Christodoulou. FRA was not
represented by Mr Christodoulou.

 

Part III

 

“You did not grant me access to List of contracts awarded by FRA. please
allow me to provide you the links to the new EU Financial Regulation and
EC Rules of Application. As you can see there is an OBLIGATION on
contracting authorities like FRA to publish a List of Contracts Awarded in
every year. I request access to those lists which should include also the
contracts for legal services […].”

 

Answer:

The Agency, in accordance with the provisions of the rules in force,
publishes the lists of the contracts awarded under the following address:
[1]http://fra.europa.eu/en/about-fra/procur....

 

Part IV - New requests:

 

Question 1:

“(…) amounts paid to the lawyers of the perpetrators or alleged
perpetrators in case F-112/10 (reimbursements of amounts)”

 

Question 2:

“(…) amounts paid to lawyers and investigators in cases of allegation of
harassment against top seniors of FRA”

 

Question 3:

“(…) amounts paid in cases before EDPS like this ones and any other news
cases”

 

Answer:

After thorough examination of your request the Agency found that no
amounts have been paid for cases related to EDPS.

 

Question 4:

“(…) amounts paid to investigators nominated by Governing Board and or
/ FRA management Team”.

 

Answer to question 1, 2 and 4:

 

Having carefully examined your application, we regret to inform you that
the description given in your application does not enable us to identify
concrete documents which would correspond to your request.

 

We therefore invite you, pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, to provide us with more
detailed information on the documents which you seek to obtain, such as
references, dates or periods during which the documents would have been
produced, persons or bodies who drafted the documents etc.

 

Lastly, we would like to draw your attention to provisions laid down
in the Code of good administrative behavior ([2]European Ombudsman Code),
in particular Article 14.3 thereof stating that the rules on dealing
with enquiries “(…) do not apply to correspondence which can reasonably
be regarded as improper, for example, because it is repetitive,
abusive and/or pointless.” Then, the Agency reserves the right to
discontinue any such exchange of correspondence or limit its replies
solely to the scope of applicability of Regulation 1049/2001.

 

With due regards to the principle of proportionality and in interest of
sound administration, the institution may also consider refusal of access
to documents, if the amount of work involved in processing the request
would be excessive in relation to the interest served by disclosure.

 

We would like to draw your attention to the means of redress against
decisions laid down hereby in Parts I - III. You may either bring
procedures before the General Court or file a complaint with the European
Ombudsman under the conditions specified respectively in Art. 263 and 228
of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, and the Regulation
(EC) 1049/2001.

 

Please note that pursuant to Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
you may make a confirmatory application asking FRA to reconsider its
position laid down Part IV. Such a confirmatory application should be
addressed within 15 working days upon receipt of this email to FRA general
e-mail: [3]info@fra.europa.eu 

 

  

Yours sincerely,

 

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]

Visit us on: [4]http://fra.europa.eu | [5]Facebook | [6]Twitter |
[7]YouTube | [8]LinkedIn

Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European
Union

FRA online toolkit to help connect public officials at all levels,
[9]available 25 September. 

References

Visible links
1. http://fra.europa.eu/en/about-fra/procur...
2. http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/resour...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.fra.europa.eu/
5. http://www.facebook.com/fundamentalrights
6. http://twitter.com/#!/EURightsAgency
7. http://youtube.com/user/EUAgencyFRA
8. http://www.linkedin.com/company/eu-funda...
9. http://fra.europa.eu/en/project/2011/joi...

Dear EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Dear CEO,

1. The FRA replied on 30 August 2013: “Please note that the Agency has no Framework Contract for the provision of legal services.”
I request access to the documents providing legal basis for the issuing of purchase order for lawyers services. I also request access to documents showing the total amount for legal services.
2. The FRA also replied on 30 August 2013: “Since the documents concerned originate from a third party, the originator of the document has been consulted. The author of the documents has objected to disclosure of the documents.”
I request details about the legal basis of considering that the purchase orders concluded between FRA and lawyers “originate from a third party”. Are those purchase orders archived at Lawyer`s premises or FRA premises?
3. I request access to the motivation related to the statement “The author of the documents has objected to disclosure of the documents.” Did FRA agree with this objection taking view that the contracts in question are financed from the public budget?
4. I cannot identify in my request anything to be framed as repetitive, abusive and pointless. In this context I request relevant information and reasoning from the FRA side, justifying its unsubstantiated statement, which read as follows: “Lastly, we would like to draw your attention to provisions laid down in the Code of good administrative behavior ([2]European Ombudsman Code), in particular Article 14.3 thereof stating that the rules on dealing
with enquiries “(…) do not apply to correspondence which can reasonably
be regarded as improper, for example, because it is repetitive,
abusive and/or pointless.” Then, the Agency reserves the right to
discontinue any such exchange of correspondence or limit its replies
solely to the scope of applicability of Regulation 1049/2001.”
Before to submit the appeal to ombudsman, I provide you with the opportunity to motivate the Statement above. The FRA inserted this phrase in some other Requests http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/which... . However in my view this phrase is abusively used by FRA, in order to determine the requesters not to ask clarification on FRA incomplete replies. This is in contradiction with the Code of Good administrative behavior invoked by FRA itself. Just look at the replies FRA provided and try to understand the FRA attitude: “if you bother me again I will invoke Ombudsman Code of Good administrative behavior”. I would appreciate some reasoning on this aspect. FRA is paid finally by EU taxpayers. The citizens are entitled to know how those money are used. See above: FRA has no contract for legal services, it awards purchase orders under secret agreements, it refuses to disclose the legal basis of such contracts. It refuses to provide access to tender file for legal services saying that is secret, and when people are asking clarifications it invokes the code of good administrative behavior of Ombudsman but did not invoke its own Code of good administrative behavior, legally binding on FRA. Whilst is not obligatory, I will wait for your reply five days before to submit appeal to the Ombudsman.
Finally I would like to request the extension of black area in the Purchase orders disclosed. In the way it was disclosed, it cannot be considered that a partial access was granted. All information were deleted. This is not in line with the scope of Regulation and apparently shows or could show that FRA has to hide something from the public disclosure.

Yours sincerely,

Kurt Weiss

EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Agence des droits fondamentaux de l'Union européenne

1 Attachment

To the attention of:

Mr Kurt Weiss

www.asktheeu.org

Vienna, 25 September 2013

2013-outgoing-001561

 

Subject:         Your request of access to documents registered under
reference number 2013-incoming-000896

 

Dear Mr Weiss,

 

We refer to your access to documents request of 14 June 2013 registered
under reference number 2013-incoming-000896, and subsequent exchange of
correspondence.

 

We observed that our replies to your applications trigged further
questions and requests for information. In order to be able to treat in a
good way your application, with due regards to the high number of requests
we have received from you, which are complex and refer to high volume of
data, Mr Manolopoulos, the Head of Administration at the EU Agency for
Fundamental Rights, would like to contact you by phone. 

 

Could you please provide us with a phone number where Mr Manolopoulos may
contact you and tell us the best moment to reach you?

 

Please send the contact number to the following email address:

[1]info@fra.europa.eu  

 

Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights
Schwarzenbergplatz 11
1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 58030-0
Email: [email address]

Visit us on: [2]http://fra.europa.eu | [3]Facebook | [4]Twitter |
[5]YouTube | [6]LinkedIn

Helping to make fundamental rights a reality for everyone in the European
Union

FRA online toolkit to help connect public officials at all levels,
[7]available 25 September. 

References

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Dear EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA),

Thank you for your email.
There were some critical remarks by FRA made on me under a few Requests to access documents and information (by invoking EU ombudsman Statute – Code in a negative -punitive connotation). See in this website all those critical remarks). I do appreciate the FRA openness, but before to take any further steps, would it be possible to clarify if the critical remarks are withdrawn by FRA? Could FRA state clearly and undoubtedly if this paragraph inserted under a few of my requests was used correctly / incorrectly and fairly/not fairly on me:
FRA paragraph reads: “We would like to draw your attention to provisions laid down in the Code of good administrative behavior ([5]European Ombudsman Code), in particular Article 14.3 thereof stating that the rules on dealing with enquiries “(…) do not apply to correspondence which can reasonably be regarded as improper, for example, because it is repetitive, abusive and/or pointless.” Then, the Agency reserves the right to discontinue any such exchange of correspondence.”
In presence of a clear and undoubtedly Withdrawals of critical remarks, before to proceed with any further steps, would it be possible to upload the pending Briefly Overviews of management team http://fra.europa.eu/en/about-fra/struct...
This was requested also by European Parliament some good months ago under point on Transparency – no 11 – see here http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/a... .
As you can see the overview of Head of Administration delegated by FRA to deal with my requests is missing. I would appreciate if FRA could ensure a public access to the Briefly Overview of Head of Administration.
Point 11 – Transparency under EP Document with ref “P7_TA(2013)0162 2011 discharge: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 1. European Parliament decision of 17 April 2013 on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights for the financial year 2011 (C7-0247/2012 – 2012/2185(DEC))” http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/a... .

states that European Parliament :

“11. Observes that some of the curricula vitae (CV) and the declarations of interest of the
Management Board members are available on the Agency's website; notes that as far as the Executive Director and the management team are concerned, only CVs are available; calls on the Agency to make the missing information publicly available and to inform the
discharge authority of the progress made on this matter as soon as possible;”
Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely,

Kurt Weiss