Correspondence with Greek officials on Evros border fence expansion

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, Migration and Home Affairs should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Lydia Emmanouilidou

Dear Migration and Home Affairs,

In May, 2022 Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi announced a planned expansion of a border fence in the Evros border region between Greece and Turkey. According to statements Minister Mitarachi provided to the media and later publicized through his official Twitter page[1], Greece requested European funding for this border fence expansion.

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting the following documents:

For the period from 01 September 2021 to date:

All correspondence – including e-mails, and any attachments – exchanged between Migration and Home Affairs and relevant Greek authorities regarding, related to, or mentioning the Evros border fence expansion and/or the use of European funds for an expansion of the Evros border fence.

[1] Link to relevant media report: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/30...

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any clarification in regards to any aspect of my request.

Thank you in advance.

Yours faithfully,

Lydia Emmanouilidou
[email address]

HOME-ACCESS-DOCUMENTS@ec.europa.eu, Migration and Home Affairs

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your e-mail of 24 August 2022. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 24 August 2022 under reference number GESTDEM 2022/4785.

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 14 September 2022. 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 Privacy statement – access to documents.

Yours faithfully,
HOME Access to Documents Team

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HOME ACCESS DOCUMENTS, Migration and Home Affairs

[1]your application for access to documents, ref nr GESTDEM 2022/4785 -
Ares(2022)6226865  (Please use this link only if you are an Ares user –
Svp, utilisez ce lien exclusivement si vous êtes un(e) utilisateur d’Ares)

Dear Madam,

We refer to your e-mail of  24/08/2022 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 on      14/09/2022.

An extended time limit is needed as the application concerns a large
number of documents.

Therefore, we have to extend the time limit by 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 05/10/2022.

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

Yours faithfully,

HOME Access to Documents Team

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Lydia Emmanouilidou

Dear HOME ACCESS DOCUMENTS,

Thank you for your message of 08 September 2022.

The extended time limit of my application has now expired and a response from Migration and Home Affairs is overdue.

Regrettably, this application is one of six I have submitted in which the Commission is currently failing to meet statutory time limits under Regulation 1049/2001. I understand the length of time often taken by the Commission and missed deadlines and delays on public access to documents requests is an issue being closely monitored by the EU Ombudsman.

As such, I hope to receive your response promptly, without further delay.

Yours sincerely,

Lydia Emmanouilidou

Lydia Emmanouilidou

Dear HOME ACCESS DOCUMENTS,

A response to my application is now long overdue and I am entitled to file a confirmatory application--a step I am strongly considering. Could you please provide a date by which you anticipate being able to respond to my overdue request?

Yours sincerely,

Lydia Emmanouilidou