Correspondence with the US on data sharing (EBSP)
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:
All correspondence (including but not limited to letters, emails, and records of meetings) exchanged between the European Commission and authorities in the USA (including but not limited to the Department of Homeland Security) concerning the negotiation and establishment of the Enhanced Border Security Partnership (EBSP) from 1 January 2021 to the date of the fulfillment of this request.
Yours faithfully,
Kian Seara Rey
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are writing to you concerning your request for access to documents sent
on 14/11/2025 and registered on 14/11/2025 under case number 2025/5959.
Since you have not indicated your postal address, we are not able to start
handling your request. The 15 working days to reply to your request will
start running only when you send us your postal address.
You can send your postal address by replying to this e-mail. If we do not
receive your reply we may close this case.
Please note that you can submit a request for access to Commission
documents via the portal [1]'Request a Commission document', which does
not require you to indicate your postal address.
Why do we need your personal postal address?
Since 1 April 2014, the submission of a postal address became a mandatory
feature when submitting an application for access to Commission documents
via an e-mail. We would like to explain why we need your postal address in
order to register and handle your application for access to documents when
submitted via e-mail:
• Firstly, to obtain legal certainty as regards the date you received
the European Commission reply to your application for public access to
documents. Article 297 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU) states that 'decisions which specify to whom
they are addressed, shall be notified to those to whom they are
addressed and shall take effect upon such notification.' In line with
this provision, if the Commission does not grant full access to the
requested documents, it notifies the reply to the applicant via
registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt or via delivery
service. This requires an indication of a valid postal address by the
applicant;
• Secondly, to apply correctly the [2]Data Protection Regulation (EU)
2018/1725. Knowing whether the applicant is an EU resident (or not) is
necessary for deciding which conditions shall apply for the
transmissions of personal data to applicants for access to documents.
These conditions are not the same for recipients established in the
Union and for recipients in third countries. As the vast majority of
the documents requested contain personal data, the Commission cannot
ensure the correct application of the data protection rules in the
absence of a postal address;
• Thirdly, to apply correctly [3]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. Article
4(1)(b) of that Regulation refers to the protection of the privacy and
integrity of the individual and has to be applied in line with the
Data Protection Regulation;
• Fourthly, to protect the interest of other citizens and safeguard the
principle of good administration. The Commission has to treat all
citizens equally by ensuring that the legal framework for public
access to documents is respected. For example, it has to verify
whether Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 is being evaded
by introducing several requests under different identities. Indeed, in
its Ryanair judgment ([4]EU:T:2010:511), the General Court confirmed
that Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 cannot be evaded by
splitting an application into several, seemingly separate, parts. In
addition, the Commission has to make sure that the legal framework is
respected and the right of access to documents is not abused by making
requests under an invented identity.
The considerations above show that the request for and the consequent
processing of the applicant's postal address is not only appropriate, but
also strictly necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the
public interest within the meaning of Article 5(1)(a) of Data Protection
Regulation, namely providing a smooth and effective access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
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1. https://www.ec.europa.eu/transparency/do...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
4. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
My address:
[address hidden]
[address hidden]
The Netherlands
Yours faithfully,
Kian Seara Rey
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
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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 14/11/2025 and registered on 17/11/2025 under the case number
2025/5959.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 08/12/2025. 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
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1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your request for access to documents.
Please note that as the current request is a duplicate of your request ref
nr EASE 2025/5983 we will proceed to the closure of the current one.
Best regards,
HOME Access to Documents team
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
This (EASE 2025/5959) was a similar but different request to my other request (EASE 2025/5983). The difference is that 2025/5959 was addressed to Secretariat-General and 2025/5983 was addressed to DG HOME. If these two offices hold different documents, I ask that both requests be fulfilled separately. My uncertainty on this comes in part from the responses: The initial response to request 2025/5959 was signed off on by the Secretariat-General, but now this response about it being a duplicate was signed by HOME.
If both these requests are handled by the same authority at the Commission, then I defer to your decision to de-duplicate, but I insist that documents from both offices be reviewed (and potentially, ultimately disclosed).
In summary: Both EASE 2025/5959 and EASE 2025/5983 ask for similar documents, but to different offices, which I believe may hold different documents. If that is actually not the case, I defer to you. Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Kian Seara Rey
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/Madam,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 14 November 2025 under case number EASE 2025/5959.
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 on 8 December 2025.
The application concerns documents held by different Services, which must
be consulted.
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 8 January 2026.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
SG.E.2
References
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1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Hello,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2025/5959.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
SG.E.2
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
I am making a confirmatory request for my request EASE 2025/5959:
In your response, you noted that the "the Secretariat-General does not hold any other
documents that would correspond to the description given" in my application. I take that to mean there has been no communications between the Commission and the US on this topic, because if there HAS been communication on this topic, there would be documents – and if there ARE documents and they it cannot be released for whatever reason, the reason given for refusing my request should not be that documents do not exist.
It is extremely unlikely that documents do not exist given that there has demonstrably been communication on this topic between the US and the Commission. The EBSP data sharing agreement has been discussed by US-EU groups since at least 2022. Another request I made to the Swedish government provided me with a series of emails that show the Commission has discussed the EBSP data sharing deal with US authorities. So then, how is it possible that you have no documents on this?
Here you will find the document provided to me by the Swedish government:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xtPuVg_...
Take a look at page 57, which details a meeting between COM (the European Commission) and the DHS (the US Department of Homeland Security) on VWP and EBSP on September 6, 2022. This clearly shows a meeting took place. If you look back at my original request, you will recall I requested all all correspondence, including but not limited to letters, emails, and *records of meetings*.
On page 71-72 there is also a mentions of a "COM-US Working Group on the U.S. Enhanced Border Security Partnership (EBSP) requirements." If there was indeed a working group addressing the EBSP, how are there no documents at all related to correspondence on this?
If you want to see the full email exchange between myself and the Swedish government office that provided me the documents mentioned above, screenshots can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13hFQ82i...
I again request all correspondence (including but not limited to letters, emails, and records of meetings) exchanged between the European Commission and authorities in the USA (including but not limited to the Department of Homeland Security) concerning the negotiation and establishment of the Enhanced Border Security Partnership (EBSP) from 1 January 2021 to the date of the fulfillment of this confirmatory request. If there truly are no documents, you need to do more to prove that you have actually carried out a comprehensive search for documents. Simply stating that no documents exist if not enough, especially considering I have now demonstrated that these meetings indeed occurred.
Yours faithfully,
Kian Seara Rey
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
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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 confirmatory request for case
2025/5959, sent on 03/02/2026 and registered on 03/02/2026.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 24/02/2026. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
Dear Mr Seara Rey,
We are writing concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case 2025/5959 registered on 03/02/2026.
We are currently working on your confirmatory 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 on 24/02/2026.
A new deadline is needed as the consultations regarding your case are
still ongoing.
Therefore, in line with Article 8(2) 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 17/03/2026.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
SG.A.2 Access to Documents Team
References
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