Dear Madam, Sir,

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:

Adjustment of Members’ general expenditure allowance, travel expenses and subsistence allowance for 2023 - Note from the Secretary-General

Please note that this document has been mentioned in Bureau agenda PE-9/BUR/OJ/2023-02, and therefore should be in principle made public, according to a majority of MEPs.

On 28 April 2016 the European Parliament adopted a resolution, in which it called on the Parliament "to make available the agendas and feedback notes of the meetings of committee coordinators, the Bureau and the Conference of Presidents, as well as, in principle, all documents referred to in these agendas ... by publishing them on the parliament's website".

On 14 September 2017, the European Parliament adopted another resolution in which it recalled “its calls on the Commission and the Council in its resolution of 28 April 2016 on public access to documents for the years 2014-2015 , in which it: … called for agendas and feedback notes of the meetings of Parliament’s Committee Coordinators, Bureau and Conference of Presidents to be made available, and, in principle, for all documents referred to in those agendas to be made available too, by publishing them on Parliament’s website”.

On Wednesday, 4 May 2022, the European Parliament adopted another resolution, in which it recalled "that the European Ombudsman, in her recommendation of 29 April 2019, in case 1651/2018/THH, found that Parliament’s refusal to grant public access to documents related to the revision of the list of expenses that might be covered by the GEA, constituted maladministration and recommended granting public access to a proposal from the Parliament Bureau’s ad hoc Working Group, including the options listed in that proposal; regrets that Parliament rejected the Ombudsman’s recommendation and urges Parliament’s administration to reconsider granting public access to the documents in question".

Please note that I do not want physical copies of your replies, and that the European Parliament has made several decisions regarding previous access to documents requests without seeing the need to send a registered letter. The claim by the Parliament that "notification by registered letter with an acknowledgement of receipt is required in order to ensure legal certainty as regards your receipt of Parliament's decision, pursuant to the third subparagraph of Article 297(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (OJ C 326, 26.10.2012, p. 47)" is nonsense.

Sincerely
Peter Teffer

Dear Madam, Sir,

I write to you regarding my access to documents request reference number 2023-0182, and your e-mailed reply dated 1 March 2023, by which you considered my application handled and the procedure closed. I also refer to Parliament's e-mail dated 2 March in relation to my access to documents request reference number 2022-1380.

In that latter e-mail, Parliament claimed that "legal certainty as to the date of receipt of the decision by the applicant must be ensured" and that "requiring a postal address enables the institutions to counter abusive recourse to access to documents applications under Regulation (EC) 1049/2001, through the introduction of requests under a false or invented identity."

How is it possible that Parliament was able to handle application 2023-0182 and close the procedure without a postal address?

Why was the aforementioned legal certainty regarding the date of receipt not required in case 2023-0182? Why is there no concern that this request may have been done "under a false or invented identity", but there was a concern regarding the other case?

Why, thus,was it possible to inform me of the decision in case 2023-0182 by e-mail, but not possible to inform me by e-mail of the decision in case 2022-1380?

Sincerely
Peter Teffer

Dear Madam, Sir

I would appreciate a reply to my questions from a week ago.

Sincerely
Peter Teffer