Competitiveness check
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
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:
- Since 1 November 2024, any guidance or similar from the Commission aimed at Commission officials about the ‘competitiveness check’ and/or the 'innovation principle', including advice or similar on when or how to undertake such check, who to consult, etc.
- A list of all meetings/ discussions since 1 November 2024 between officials and/or Commissioners with businesses and trade associations, as well as any consultancies, think tanks or law firms working for those actors where the competitiveness check and/or the innovation principle was mentioned. Key words: "competitiveness check", "innovation principle".
- Any records, minutes, preparatory briefings, or other notes of these meetings/discussions, including correspondence regarding the set-up or the follow-up to, these meetings. I would also like to receive full notes of any meetings held, and not just the summary notes proactively published by the Commission.
- All correspondence since 1 November 2024, where the competitiveness check and/or the innovation principle was discussed or mentioned, exchanged between officials and or Commissioners with businesses and trade associations, as well as any consultants/consultancies, scientists, think tanks or law firms working for those actors.
Documents that cannot be sent in electronic format should be sent to Corporate Europe Observatory, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels – to the attention of Nina Holland. Should you transmit documents to us by regular post, I kindly ask you to announce that in advance in this regard.
I would like to make clear I prefer you produce the documents on a rolling basis.
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.
Looking forward to your swift reply, and thank you for your assistance.
Yours faithfully,
Nina Holland
Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d’Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels, Belgium
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/...
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 29/09/2025 and registered on 29/09/2025 under the case number
2025/4942.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 20/10/2025. We will let you know
if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working days.
To find more information on how we process your personal data, please see
[1]the privacy statement.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Ms Holland,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2025/4942.
Kind regards,
The Secretariat-General
SG.C2
Dear Madam,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered in DG RTD on 16 October under case number EASE 2025/5303.
We are currently working on your request. However, we have not yet been
able to gather all the elements necessary to carry out a full analysis of
your request. We will not be able to send you the reply within the
prescribed time limit expiring today.
Therefore, in line with Article 7(3) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
we need to extend this time limit by 15 additional working days. The new
time limit expires on 10 November.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to documents
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission, dear RTD,
Thank you for your message. I'm looking forward to your reply.
Yours faithfully,
Nina Holland
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/...
Dear Ms Holland,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2025/4942.
Kind regards,
The Secretariat-General
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
I have received your request for clarification in good order.
The first part of my request can remain the same in my view, since I have specified that it's about "any guidance or similar from the Commission aimed at Commission officials about the ‘competitiveness check’ and/or the 'innovation principle', including advice or similar on when or how to undertake such check, who to consult, etc."
Regarding the other parts, where it says "where the competitiveness check and/or the innovation principle was mentioned", I can clarify that I mean documents:
- where the use of the competitiveneness check as an instrument (why, how often, in which cases) is being discussed
- where private sector actors argue for the application of the competitiveness check in specific cases.
I hope this sufficiently clarifies my request and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours faithfully,
Nina Holland
Dear Madam,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2025/4942.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
The Secretariat-General of the European Commission
SG.C
Dear Madam,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2025/4942.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
The Secretariat-General of the European Commission
SG.C
Dear Madam,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2025/4942.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
The Secretariat-General of the European Commission
SG.C
Admninistrative closure of reference number EASE 2025/5423. SG replied on
behalf of DG GROW on the part of the request concerning competitiveness
checks (under EASE 2025/4942)
Dear Ms Holland,
With our sincerest apologies for the delay,please find attached the reply
concerning your request for access to Commission documents registered
under the above case number 2025/5303.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
DG RTD - Access to Documents
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
I hereby confirm receipt of the email from DG RTD in reply to my request.
Thank you for your collaboration,
Yours faithfully,
Nina Holland
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
Thank you for your reply sent on 5 December 2025, and the documents disclosed.
Yours faithfully,
Nina Holland