EU Talent Pool Interservice consultation
Dear Madam, Sir
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:
All documents related to the interservice consultation for the Commission proposal for a Regulation establishing an EU Talent Pool
Please note I prefer to receive the documents in digital format, not by physical mail.
Sincerely,
Peter Teffer
Follow the Money
Overtoom 197
1054 HT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 15/11/2023 and registered on 17/11/2023 under the case number
2023/6873.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 08/12/2023. 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,
Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Sir.
please find attached the reply of DG HOME to your request signed by our
Director General.
Kind regards,
The secretariat HOME C.2
Dear Madam, Sir,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing a confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request sent on 15/11/2023 and registered on 17/11/2023 under the case number 2023/6873.
DG HOME has decided to deny access to all 41 identified documents.
It states that "all the documents identified above are internal Commission documents". This statement is irrelevant and frankly, silly. Irrelevant, because Regulation 1049/2001 applies to all documents held by the EU institutions, regardless of whether they are classified as "internal" or not. Silly, because it does not make sense to make a distinction between internal documents and non-internal documents in the context of an access to documents request. When a citizen requests documents, he or she is de facto asking for internal documents. If the document had already been public, a request would not have been necessary.
Thus, the Commission only may refuse documents with a specific reference to one of the exceptions in article 4 of the regulation. DG HOME refers to Article 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the ongoing-decisionmaking process.
But I cannot believe there is a serious undermining of the Commission's decision-making process were these documents be released. Why can I not believe that? Because other DG's have in the past provided wide access to inter-service consultation documents. This was apparently possible without undermining the Commission's decision-making process. It does not make sense that the Commission was able to provide partial or even wide access to ISC documents in the past (like in cases GESTDEM 2022/0490, GESTDEM 2022/1615, and GESTDEM 2022/3815) but supposedly would not be able to do so now.
The Commission also states that "it must be free to explore all possible options free from external pressure". But what the Commission calls external pressure includes participation by citizens and other stakeholders. In order to have an informed debate about the legislative proposal, access to the inter-service consultation documents can increase the quality of the debate. As the Court of Justice has previously stated, participants in a democracy are fully able to distinguish between draft versions of a proposal and final proposals, and to understand that there is a negotiation happening in between.
It is also this democratic debate that would benefit from the documents being released that to me constitutes an overriding public interest.
Sincerely
Peter Teffer
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2023/6873, sent on 12/01/2024 and registered on 15/01/2024.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 05/02/2024. 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 Mr Teffer,
We refer to your email, registered on 15 January 2024, 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 finalise 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 5 February 2024. 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 26 February 2024.
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 Madam, Sir,
I refer to my confirmatory application related to request case number 2023/6873. This week marks the one-year (!) anniversary of my submission of that request.
However, after the extended period for replying to the confirmatory application expired on 26 February 2024, I have not heard anything from the Commission anymore.
This is an unacceptable delay that makes a mockery of the legal deadlines from 1049/2001. Please reply to my confirmatory application without any more delay.
Sincerely
Peter Teffer
Dear Madam, Sir,
I refer to my confirmatory application related to request case number 2023/6873.
Does the Commission ever plan to reply to this request?
Sincerely
Peter Teffer