EC assessments of enabling conditions for AMIF, BMVI and ISF programmes of 6 Member States
Dear Migration and Home Affairs,
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:
- European Commission's correspondence with 6 Member States (Hungary, Poland, Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Croatia) on the fulfilment of horizontal enabling conditions related to the Charter of fundamental rights of the EU for AMIF, ISF and BMVI funding instruments. The correspondence should include Member States' self assessments and European Commission's assessments of the enabling conditions in the abovementioned programmes in the 6 Member States.
- Any internal European Commission's documents containing internal guidelines, guidance or checklists to EU staff on how to assess the fulfilment of horizontal enabling conditions related to the Charter of fundamental rights in AMIF, BMVI and ISF programmes.
Yours faithfully,
Chiara Catelli
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are writing to you concerning your request for access to documents sent
on 27/02/2023 and registered on 27/02/2023 under case number 2023/1345.
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,
Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
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 Migration and Home Affairs,
Many thanks for your reply in which you ask me to provide you with my postal address.
I shared my postal address via my professional email on 27 February. I look forward to hear your kind feedback.
Yours faithfully,
Chiara Catelli
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 27/02/2023 and registered on 27/02/2023 under the case number
2023/1345.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 20/03/2023. 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,
Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Ms Catelli,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 27 February 2023 under case number 2023/1345.
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 20 March 2023, as in order to retrieve
the documents requested, large files have to be examined.
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 13 April 2023.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Migration and Home Affairs,
I would like to follow up to my request below. In line with Regulation No 1049/2001, the time limit to provide me with the information requested originally expired on 20 March. On March 16, you informed me that you needed to extend the time limit by 15 additional working days (on 13 April 2023). I would like to kindly flag that, by law, under all circumstances, the European Commission should have responded by now.
Could you please reply to my request?
Yours faithfully,
Chiara Catelli
Dear Migration and Home Affairs,
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'EC assessments of enabling conditions for AMIF, BMVI and ISF programmes of 6 Member States'. According to your last message, your deadline to respond to my request was almost one year ago (13 April 2023).
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/ec_a...
Yours faithfully,
Chiara Catelli
Dear Madam,
Thank you for your email.
Please be in formed that a reply to your initial request for access to documents, registered under reference 2023/1345, has been sent to you by our DG HOME colleagues on 18/03/2024.
Please find, attached, a copy of this initial reply.
Therefore, we will not proceed with the registration of your confirmatory application.
Could you please confirm?
Many thanks in advance and kind regards,
Access to documents team - cr
SG.C.1
Transparency