Dear Agriculture and Rural Development,

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:

With regards to the following tenders awarded by DG AGRI:
1) SI2.1243350 "DG AGRI EU OPEN DAY 2023"
2) SI2.1354831 "PARTICIPATION IN IGW 2024 BERLIN AND SIA 2024 PARIS"
3) SI2.1243310 "AU-EU AGRICULTURE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE - JUNE 2023"
4) SI2.1334128 "EU ORGANIC DAY 2023"

I am requesting:
- Any Terms of Reference signed by contractors as part of the above-mentioned tender;
- Any strategy, plan, analysis and document prepared by the contractors as part of the above-mentioned tenders;
- Notes and/or minutes of any meeting between the contractors and DG AGRI, in relation to the above-mentioned projects;
- Correspondence in relation to the above-mentioned projects between DG AGRI and the contractors
- List of subcontractors involved in the above-mentioned projects.
- Any document containing a full list of the above-mentioned project deliverables
- Conflict of interests assessments and/or declarations performed and/or submitted by contractors and/or subcontractors as part of the above-mentioned projects.

Yours faithfully,
Cécile Marchand

Climate House
39 Rue du Caire
Paris 75002
France

Dear DG AGRI ATD Team,

According to publicly available data they were all awarded to Edelman, but if that's not the case feel free to disregard Edelman, and provide all information requested related to those four tenders.

Thank you very much in advance,

Yours faithfully,

Cécile Marchand

Dear Agriculture and Rural Development,

Can I confirm you've received the above, and do not require any more clarification, and that you will reply by the deadline?

Yours faithfully,

Cécile Marchand

Dear AGRI ATD Team,

I received your documents, thank you very much for handling my request.

I would like to file a confirmatory application following your decision not to disclose certain documents. Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.

1) On the refusal to release documents 2.3, 4.3, 4.5, 4.7, 4.8, 6.6, 8.6:

To refuse the release of any elements of the documents on commercial confidentiality grounds seems excessive.

The Commission justifies the refusal on grounds that: “The documents in question contain commercial sensitive information, such as breakdowns of budgets, VAT Number, business strategies, references to the elements of know-how, methodologies and techniques developed for the purposes of the projects, or information that can be used to identify them.”

I am not interested in parts of the documents containing 'breakdown of budgets' and 'VAT Number'. They can be redacted.

In its refusal to provide partial access to said documents, the Commission seems not to have taken into account that they refer to work performed by third-parties, but contracted by a public institution, and paid for with public funds. Such aspects need to be factored in when weighing up the relative importance of the commercial interests supposedly undermined by their disclosure and the public interest served by disclosing them.

By denying partial access to all technical documents and minutes of meetings between the Commission and contractors, the public is precluded from any information regarding actual work (deliverables) performed by third-parties on behalf of public authorities.

I therefore ask this to be reconsidered and partial access to those documents disclosed.

2) On the failure to identify any documents containing information on conflict of interest assessments and/or declaration.

It is unclear to me how the Commission could not identify any documents containing information on the above given EU Financial Regulation. I ask this to be reconsidered, and reiterate my demand to disclose documents containing information on conflict of interest assessments and/or declaration.

3) On the refusal to release document 6.7
You considered that releasing the 'Final register of attendance - Event website - Visuals' was out of scope. I consider that this is part of the project deliverables requested. I don't want to access the names/initials and contact details of natural persons; only the names of the entities represented in the AU-EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference.

Yours sincerely,

Cécile Marchand

Dear Agriculture and Rural Development,

The new date you gave me to answer my confirmatory request has passed a month ago. I would appreciate it if you could provide me with an answer to my request. If you are unable to answer by August 8th, I will feel compelled to file a complaint with the Ombudsman.

Yours faithfully,

Cécile Marchand

Dear Agriculture and Rural Development,

Thank you for your reply. Would you be able to give me a new deadline by when you will be able to answer my confirmatory request?

Yours faithfully,

Cécile Marchand

Dear Secretariat-General of the Commission,

I would like to re-up my previous request. Can you give me a date by when you plan to reply to my request? The extended limit to reply to my confirmatory application has passed for more than three months.

Very best,
Cécile

Dear SG ACCES DOCUMENTS,

I hope you are well.
I'm still waiting for those documents. Is the process to get hold of them still ongoing?

Yours sincerely,

Cécile Marchand