Deliberations on the 'Media Ownership Directive' of 1997
Alexander Fanta made this access to documents request to Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.
Dear Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents on the internal deliberations within the Commission in 1996 and 1997 on the draft 'Media Ownership Directive'. This is meant to include documents from rounds of consultations with the member states, consultations within the Commission including legal opinions, studies and letters/faxes between members of the Commission and their cabinets, as well as submissions from stakeholders on the draft Directive.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
netzpolitik.org e.V.
Schönhauser Allee 6-7
10119 Berlin
Germany
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of 13 September 2022. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 15 September 2022 under reference number GESTDEM 2022/5204.
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 6 October 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 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,
Access to Documents Team
Dear Access to Documents Team,
the time limit of my request expired a month ago. Can you give me an update on the status?
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Fanta
Dear Sir,
We refer to your request for access to documents registered under the
reference number GestDem 2022/5204.
The extended time-limit for handling your application expired on 27
October 2022.
Please note that your request has been re-attributed to DG CONNECT.
We are currently working on your application. You will receive the reply
to your application as soon as possible.
We apologise for this further delay and for any incoveniene this may
cause.
Yours faithfully,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
Dear Sir,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2022/5204.
Kind regards,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
Dear DG Connect,
I would like to clarify that I am seeking documents containing substantive policy discussions on the originally envisaged Regulation. This includes internal Commission communication between the different DGs, but also submissions from member states and stakeholders in the corporate world. However, the titles of the files from the archive you mention provide very little insight into which documents are contained, making it hard to discern which are relevant to my request. In requests it is customary and well-established practice to provide applicants with a full list of the documents with titles, dates and originating institution. This would make picking the relevant ones much easier.
I would also like to point out the European Ombudsman decision in case 1869/2013/AN, in which the Commission was asked to provide 300 documents by an applicant. It then offered as a solution to release the requested documents within 3-7 months of the initial request. I would like to ask the Commission to re-examine my initial request and provide me with a time frame for a batch-by-batch examination and possible release of all documents within the coming months.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
Dear Sir,
Please note DG CNECT's email address: [email address]. We have forwarded your message below to DG CNECT.
Kind regards,
DG GROW ATD Team
Dear DG Connect A2D Team,
it is now over two months since our exchange on a fair solution about my request on the Media Ownership Directive of 1997. Since I received no acknowledgement of my reply, I would like to ask for progress on my request.
As I understand my request concerns a fair amount of documents, I would like to propose to limit its scope to make it manageable within reasonable time. I therefore would like to ask for all exchanges between the Commission and member states in 1996 and 1997. This is meant to include letters, faxes, policy papers, etc. in the files you list in your last reply. Please send me an acknowledgement of this revised scope and whether it is manageable.
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Fanta
Dear Sir,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2022/5204.
Kind regards,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
Dear Sir,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2022/5204.
Kind regards,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
Dear DG Connect A2D team,
thank you for your very timely reply and the thorough work, this really helps to narrow it down.
I would like to limit my request to the following documents you mentioned:
- Reports from meetings with MS/stakeholders
- Notes to the attention of members of the Commission, DGs, etc
- Letters to other members of the Commission, members states, stakeholders
- Letters, position papers, speeches from member states
As per your count, this amounts to a total of 23 documents, which I hope is manageable within the regular response time.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
Dear Access to Documents team at DG Connect,
it is now 8 weeks since I agreed to significantly narrow the scope of my request. Can you give me time frame until you can release the documents?
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
[1]RE: access to documents request - Deliberations on the 'Media Ownership
Directive' of 1997 - Ares(2023)1718364 (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 Sir,
Thank you for your email.
We apologize for the delay. We are working on the reply to your
application.
Since your request concerns very old paper files, additional time was
needed in order to create electronic copies of them. In addition, part of
the documents requested originates from third parties (Member States) that
need to be consulted.
We are doing our best to provide you with a reply as soon as possible.
We apologize again for this delay and for any inconvenience this may
cause.
Your sincerely,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG Connect – ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Rue de la Loi, 51
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Dear CNECT-PUBLIC-ACCESS-TO-DOCUMENTS,
thank you for the information. I appreciate your work.
Yours sincerely,
Alexander Fanta
By email only
Dear Mr Fanta,
Please find attached document Ares(2023)2989800 regarding your application
for access to documents – GestDem 2022/5204 sent by Mr Roberto Viola,
General Director of DG CONNECT on 27/04/2023.
Best regards,
European Commission
DG CONNECT — ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Rue de la Loi, 51
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Dear Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Deliberations on the 'Media Ownership Directive' of 1997'.
I very much appreciate the work of the transparency unit has done in digitizing the documents in question. However, I feel that some of the redactions made in the documents are unnecessary and wanted to ask to be given unredacted versions of said documents.
This applies in particular to document 5, which contains a personal letter by German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to the President of the European Commission, Jacques Santer. In the letter, the name and handwriting of Helmut Kohl have been redacted. As you note in your letter, redactions of personal information should not apply to senior management, to which I would count Chancellor Kohl, and in any case he is deceased, so data protection no longer applies.
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Fanta
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2022/5204, sent on 28/04/2023 and registered on 28/04/2023.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 24/05/2023. 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 Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2022/5204, sent on 28/04/2023 and registered on 28/04/2023.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 24/05/2023. 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 Fanta,
We are writing concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case EASE 2022/5204 registered on 28 April 2023.
In your application you specify that you 'feel that some of the redactions
made in the documents are unnecessary and wanted to ask to be given
unredacted versions of said documents. This applies in particular to
document 5, which contains a personal letter by German Chancellor Helmut
Kohl to the President of the European Commission, Jacques Santer. [...].'
In line with Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public
access to documents, could you please kindly clarify the scope of your
confirmatory application, notably whether you would like to request the
review of all the documents identified at initial stage or only of
document 5, explicitly mentioned in your application?
Thank you in advance for your prompt response.
Kind regards,
SG.C1 Access to Documents
Dear Mr Fanta,
We refer to your email of 28 April 2023, by which you submit a
confirmatory application in accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council
and Commission documents ("Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001"), registered
under reference number above.
Your confirmatory application is currently being handled. Unfortunately,
we have not yet been able to finalize the internal consultations needed to
carry out a full analysis of your request and to take a final decision.
Therefore, we are not in a position to reply to your confirmatory request
within the prescribed time limit which expires on 13 June 2023.
Consequently, we have to extend this period by another 15 working days in
accordance with Article 8(2) of Regulation (EC) No1049/2001. The new
deadline expires on 4 July 2023.
We regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause. However, we can assure you that we are doing
our utmost to provide you with a final reply as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
SG.C1 ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
Dear Mr Fanta,
We refer to your email by which you submit a confirmatory application in
accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents
("Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001"), registered under the reference number
above.
We also refer to our email of 13 June 2023 by which the deadline for
handling your request was extended. Your confirmatory application is
currently being handled.
We regret to have to inform you that we will not be able to respond within
the extended time-limit which expires on 4 July 2023, as we have still not
been able to finalise the internal consultations needed to carry out a
full analysis of your request and to take a final decision.
We regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause. However, we can assure you that we are doing
our utmost to provide you with a final reply as soon as possible.
Thank you for your understanding.
Yours sincerely,
SG.C1 ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM
Dear Mr Alexander Fanta,
Please find attached the electronic version of Commission Decision C(2023)
8812 as adopted by the European Commission on 07/12/2023.
The formal notification of the decision under Article 297 TFEU is being
made only in electronic form.
Could you please confirm receipt of the attached document by return
e-mail?
Many thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
NADIA WADHWANIA
European Commission
Secretariat General – Unit B.2
Written, Empowerment & Delegation Procedures
BERL 05/140
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229-65742
[1][email address]
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2. https://intragate.ec.europa.eu/decide/sep
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Dear Mr Fanta,
Unless we are mistaken, and while checking our records, we have not
received your confirmation of receipt regarding the message below.
Could you please confirm having received the message and also of the
document enclosed?
Kind regards,
NADIA WADHWANIA
European Commission
Secretariat General – Unit B.2
Written, Empowerment & Delegation Procedures
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229-65742
[1][email address]
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From: SG GREFFE CERTIFICATION <[email address]>
Sent: Friday, December 8, 2023 12:04 PM
To: [FOI #11828 email]
Cc: GRIGORAS Eduard (SG) <[email address]>; WADHWANIA Nadia
(SG) <[email address]>
Subject: C(2023) 8812 addressed to Mr Alexander Fanta
Dear Mr Alexander Fanta,
Please find attached the electronic version of Commission Decision C(2023)
8812 as adopted by the European Commission on 07/12/2023.
The formal notification of the decision under Article 297 TFEU is being
made only in electronic form.
Could you please confirm receipt of the attached document by return
e-mail?
Many thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
NADIA WADHWANIA
European Commission
Secretariat General – Unit B.2
Written, Empowerment & Delegation Procedures
BERL 05/140
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 229-65742
[4][email address]
[5][IMG][6][IMG]
Your tool | Our help
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://intragate.ec.europa.eu/decide/sep
3. https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/wikis...
4. mailto:[email address]
5. https://intragate.ec.europa.eu/decide/sep
6. https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/wikis...