Cañete and Cabinet meetings with lobby consultancies
Dear Climate Action,
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:
- A list of which clients lobby consultancies (as defined in the lobby register) were meeting Miguel Arias Cañete and his cabinet on behalf of, covering the period from November 2015 up to and including April 2016.
- Minutes of all meetings listed above, covering the period from November 2015 up to and including April 2016.
Yours faithfully,
Pascoe Sabido
Dear Climate Action,
My postal address:
Pascoe Sabido
CEO
Mundo B
Rue d'Edimbourg 28
Bruxelles 1050
Belgique
Yours faithfully,
Pascoe Sabido
Dear Mr Sabido,
Thank you for your email dated 19th April.
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on the 21st April 2016 under reference number GestDem 2016/2129.
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 expires on 18th May 2016.
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 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.
Yours faithfully,
Mathilde CREPY
Access to document team
European Commission
DG Climate Action
Unit 001 – Administrative and Legal Support, Liaison with SRD
Dear Mr. Sabido,
I refer to your email dated 19th April 2016 in which you requested to be provided access to Commission documents, registered on 21st April 2016 under reference GestDem 2016/2129.
Your application is currently being handled. However, we were not be in a position to complete the handling of your application within the time limit of 15 working days, which expired yesterday, 18th May 2016.
Indeed, the handling of this request involves a significant documents search which is still taking place (all the potential requested documents have not yet been identified).
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 8th June 2016.
We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
Mathilde Crepy
Mathilde CREPY
Access to document team
European Commission
DG Climate Action
Unit 001 – Administrative and Legal Support, Liaison with SRD
Dear Mr. Sabido,
I refer to your email dated 19th April 2016 in which you requested to be provided access to Commission documents, registered on 21st April 2016 under reference GestDem 2016/2129.
Please find attached:
1. DG Climate Action's reply to your request (ref. Ares(2016)2886944),
2. The list of identified documents ('overview table')
3. Copies of the identified documents where applicable.
Should you have any problem to open the attachments, do not hesitate to get back to me.
Yours sincerely,
Mathilde CREPY
Access to document team
European Commission
DG Climate Action
Unit 001 – Administrative and Legal Support, Liaison with SRD
Dear Climate Action,
Thank you for the documents.
However, I'm confused at how they refer to the request made (but maybe I'm missing something).
I wanted to find out on whose behalf private lobby consultancies were meeting Canete and his cabinet.
But the list you've sent me is of corporations and trade associations meeting with Canete and his cabinet, rather than lobby consultancies.
The reason I asked is because within the online calendar it mentions that a lobby consultancy has met the Commissioner or their cabinet, but it does not say who they were lobbying on behalf of.
For example, according to the online calendar, on 28 January 2016, Maria Cristina Lobillo Borrero met ELSA & PARTNERS in Brussels, on 'Post COP21', but as ELSA & PARTNERS is a lobby consultancy working for private clients, I wanted to know which clients they were meeting on behalf of - information that is currently not disclosed.
Please can you provide me with the relevant information, as outlined in the original request.
Yours faithfully,
Pascoe Sabido
Dear Mr. Sabido,
Thank you for your email and pointing this out.
We have indeed extended the scope of your request to all the meetings held
between Commissioner Cañete/his Cabinet on the one hand and with
organisations and self-employed individuals on the other hand (the lobby
consultancies being only one category within 'organisations and
self-employed individuals') from November 2015 until April 2016. We
apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
Concerning the requested list of meetings, please refer to the two links
we already provided you with, i.e.
[1]http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiati...
(for Cabinet members) and
[2]http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiati...
(for the Commissioner).
Indeed, we do not have a specific list of meetings with 'lobby
consultancies', however, the two lists you will find on the aforementioned
webpages meetings with lobby consultancies.
Concerning the minutes, we have provided you with the minutes of all
meetings held between Commissioner Cañete/his Cabinet on the one hand and
with organisations and self-employed individuals on the other hand from
November 2015 until April 2016. The minutes of meetings with lobby
consultancies, if any, have been included.
Regarding your last point on the identity of the lobby consultancies'
clients, I am afraid we do not have any document listing them. We would
suggest you to directly ask these consultancies.
We once again apologize for extending the scope of your request.
Yours faithfully,
Mathilde CREPY
Access to document team
[3]cid:image001.gif@01CF3250.5B02B3F0
European Commission
DG Climate Action
Unit 001 – Administrative and Legal Support, Liaison with SRD
Dear Climate Action,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Climate Action's handling of my FOI request 'Cañete and Cabinet meetings with lobby consultancies'.
I asked for a list of on whose behalf the private lobby consultants were meeting Commissioner Canete and his cabinet, but the information does not appear to be available.
I find it extremely difficult to believe that the Commissioner and his cabinet is meeting lobby consultancies without being aware on whose behalf they are working. If this is the case, it is easily circumnavigating the rules of not being able to gain access to senior officials without being in the transparency register.
I believe this information does exist - either in the minutes of the meetings or in another place - and therefore should be made publicly available on request.
If this information does not exist or has not been recorded in any way, then the transparency regulations need to be changed to ensure this information is a) made clear before a meeting is agreed and that b) it is then checked against the transparency register.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/cane...
Yours faithfully,
Pascoe Sabido
Dear Mr Sabido,
Thank you for your email dated 08/06/2016, by which you request, pursuant
to Regulation No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,
Council and Commission documents, a review of the position taken by DG
CLIMA in reply to your initial application GESTDEM 2016/2129.
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory
application for access to documents which was Ares(2016)2685410).
registered on 09/06/2016 (
Your application will be handled within 15 working days (30/06/2016). In
case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due
course.
Please be informed that the answer to your confirmatory application is a
formal Commission decision that will be notified to you by express
delivery. We kindly offer you the possibility to provide us a contact
phone number (by email to [1][email address]), so that the
external delivery service can contact you in case of absence.
Please note that the Commission will not use your phone number for any
other purpose than for informing the delivery service, and that it will
delete it immediately thereafter.
Yours faithfully,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
European Commission
Secretariat General
Unit B4 - Transparency
Dear Mr Sabido,
Please find attached a note for your attention regarding your confirmatory
application GestDem 2016/2129.
Best regards,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (NL)
[1]cid:image002.jpg@01CFC082.A6D14DD0
European Commission
Secretariat General
B4 – Transparency
References
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Dear Mr Pascoe,
Please find attached an advance information copy of the confirmatory
decision taken on your request for access to documents registered under
GESTDEM number 2016/2129, adopted on 30/06/2016 in the above-mentioned
case.
Please note that the Secretariat General of the European Commission will
proceed with the formal notification of the decision in the coming days.
This advance copy is solely sent for your information and is not the
formal notification of the confirmatory decision.
Yours sincerely,
BLURIOT-PUEBLA Madeleine
Cellule 'Accès aux documents'
European Commission
SG/B/4 - Transparence
BERL 05/315
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 296 09 97
[1][email address]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]