Documentation from meetings on February 1st 2023 between Santiago Cafiero and EU officials
Dear International Partnerships,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, and with reference to the Aarhus Convention, due to the environmental nature of this inquiry, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:
All documents—including but not limited to correspondence, emails, minutes, notes (hand written or electronic), audio or video recordings, verbatim reports, operational conclusions, lines to take, briefings, and presentations—related to the meetings on February 1st, 2023, between the Minister of Foreign Relations of Argentina Santiago Cafiero and Vice-President of the European Commission (EC) and High Representative of the EU for External Affairs, Josep Borrell, together with the Executive Vice-President of the EC and Commissioner for EU Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, and the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen.
I would prefer to receive documents electronically but if that is not possible please use the following postal address:
Transport & Environment
18 Square de Meeûs, 1050 Brussels
Belgium
I would like to make clear I prefer you produce the documents on a rolling basis. At no point should the Commission's search for—or deliberations concerning—certain documents delay the production of others that the Commission has already retrieved and elected to produce.
Please confirm having received this application. I look forward to your reply within 15 business days, according to the Regulation.
Yours faithfully,
Cian Delaney
Transport & Environment
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 24/11/2023 and registered on 27/11/2023 under the case number
2023/7029.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 18/12/2023. 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 Sir,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 27 November 2023 under case number EASE/2023/7029.
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 18 December 2023.
Indeed, 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 4 January 2024.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Mr DELANEY,
We refer to your application for public access to documents sent on
24/11/2023 and registered on 27/11/2023 under the case number 2023/7030
dealt with by DG TRADE. Please note that your request was split between
two European Commission Directorates-General and your applicantion is also
processed independently by DG INTPA under the case number 2023/7029.
You have requested access to:
“All documents—including but not limited to correspondence, emails,
minutes, notes (hand written or electronic), audio or video recordings,
verbatim reports, operational conclusions, lines to take, briefings, and
presentations—related to the meetings on February 1st, 2023, between the
Minister of Foreign Relations of Argentina Santiago Cafiero and
Vice-President of the European Commission (EC) and High Representative of
the EU for External Affairs, Josep Borrell, together with the Executive
Vice-President of the EC and Commissioner for EU Trade, Valdis
Dombrovskis, and the European Commissioner for International Partnerships,
Jutta Urpilainen.”
Please note that the identified documents have already been partially
disclosed as part of a previous request for access to European Commission
documents submitted by another applicant from your organization, Transport
& Environment based in Brussels.
The documents are publicly available at the following links:
[1]Electronic Access to Commission Documents (EASE) (europa.eu)
Having fulfilled the scope of your request, we will proceed with the
closure of the case.
Kindly acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email withing 5
working days.
Yours sincerely,
DG TRADE Access to Documents Team
European Commission
Directorate General for Trade
Unit R3 – Transparency, Civil Society and Communications
CHAR
1049 Brussels
Belgium
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/docume...
Hello,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2023/7029.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
Dear International Partnerships,
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 'Documentation from meetings on February 1st 2023 between Santiago Cafiero and EU officials'.
I am not satisfied with my result of request, which concluded that the full information on this documentation is to be withheld. This contradicts my freedom of information entitlements guaranteed by the Aarhus Convention, according to the EU's own official wording.
The Aarhus Convention protects every person’s right to live in a healthy environment. It guarantees the public three key rights on environmental issues. Access to information refers to the public’s right to receive environmental information held by public authorities. This includes information on:
- the state of the environment
- policies or measures affecting the environment
- public health and safety where these are affected by the state of the environment.
I draw your attention specifically to the second point made here, as the discussion held at the meetings in question can be linked to Argentina's negotiations demands regarding soy biofuels exports to the EU. This product has already been recognized in the European Union Deforestation Regulation as a major driver of deforestation and, therefore, information on these documents concerns policies or measures affecting the environment.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/docu...
Yours faithfully,
Cian Delaney
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2023/7029, sent on 22/01/2024 and registered on 22/01/2024.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 12/02/2024. 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 applicant,
We are writing concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case EASE 2023/7029 registered on 22 January
2024.
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 12 February 2024.
A new deadline is needed as consultations 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 4 March 2024.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
SG.C1 - Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Sir,
Please find attached the electronic version of Commission Decision
C(2024)1663 as adopted by the European Commission on 08.03.2024.
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,
European Commission
Access to Documents Team - dd