Follow-Up Questions on Partner Funding in Direct Awards in EDIDP
Dear Defence Industry and Space,
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:
Thank you for your reply https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/info... to my questions regarding MALE RPAS and ESSOR. Your reply prompts follow on questions:
(1A) It's in the EC factsheet that the 4 MALE RPAS partners receive €98,115,022 in EU funding, which is greater than the €96,352,391 calculated from the EC's reply. The EC attributes this difference of €1,762,631 to partners that do not feature in the MALE RPAS factsheet, so-called Linked Third Parties. Please identify these MALE RPAS partners, their nationality and the EU funding allocated to each one.
(1B) It's in the EC factsheet that the 6 ESSOR partners receive €34,655,931 in EU funding, which is greater than the €33,951,476 calculated from the EC's reply. The EC attributes this difference of €704,455 to partners that do not feature in the ESSOR factsheet, so called Linked Third Parties. Please identify these ESSOR partners, their nationality and the EU funding allocated to each one.
(2A) The EC MALE RPAS (100m€) contract is with OCCAR. The difference with the MALE RPAS factsheet is (100,000,000 - 98,115,022) = 1,884,978. Please confirm the purpose of this funding.
(2B) The EC ESSOR (37m€) contract is with OCCAR. The difference with the ESSOR factsheet is (37,000,000 - 34,655,931) = 2,344,069. Please confirm the purpose of this funding.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Murphy
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Defence Industry and Space,
Regarding my follow-up FOI request on partner funding in Direct Awards in EDIDP, by law DG DEFIS should normally have responded by September 21, 2023. Please expedite this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Murphy
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Mr. Murphy,
Please note there is no such follow-up request received in our files and we are also unable to see it in this thread.
Kindest regards,
DEFIS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Dear [email address],
Forgive my delayed reaction. There appears to be confusion as my follow-up query was acknowledged by the EC systems and can be found at the beginning of this thread. Nevertheless, I have reprinted the query below:
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:
Thank you for your reply https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/info... to my questions regarding MALE RPAS and ESSOR. Your reply prompts follow on questions:
(1A) It's in the EC factsheet that the 4 MALE RPAS partners receive €98,115,022 in EU funding, which is greater than the €96,352,391 calculated from the EC's reply. The EC attributes this difference of €1,762,631 to partners that do not feature in the MALE RPAS factsheet, so-called Linked Third Parties. Please identify these MALE RPAS partners, their nationality and the EU funding allocated to each one.
(1B) It's in the EC factsheet that the 6 ESSOR partners receive €34,655,931 in EU funding, which is greater than the €33,951,476 calculated from the EC's reply. The EC attributes this difference of €704,455 to partners that do not feature in the ESSOR factsheet, so called Linked Third Parties. Please identify these ESSOR partners, their nationality and the EU funding allocated to each one.
(2A) The EC MALE RPAS (100m€) contract is with OCCAR. The difference with the MALE RPAS factsheet is (100,000,000 - 98,115,022) = 1,884,978. Please confirm the purpose of this funding.
(2B) The EC ESSOR (37m€) contract is with OCCAR. The difference with the ESSOR factsheet is (37,000,000 - 34,655,931) = 2,344,069. Please confirm the purpose of this funding.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Murphy
Dear Mr. Murphy,
Please find below our analysis of your request for information.
You request the following information:
1. The total number of proposals in EDIDP 2019, as well as the total number of proposals to EDIDP-ACC-CJTP and EDIDP-ACC-AEAC-2019: DG DEFIS received 40 proposals for EDIDP 2019 and 16 of them were funded. EDIDP-ACC received 4 proposals. EDIDP-ACC received 4 proposals. EDIDP-ACC-CJTP received 3 proposals. EDIDP-ACC-AEAC only 1 proposal.
2. MALE RPAS and ESSOR partners, their nationality and the EU funding allocated to each one: Beneficiaries of EU funds must ensure that all their obligations also apply to their linked third parties and that they do not contravene EU or Member State security or defence interests and that their work is not subject to controls or other restrictions by a non-EU country or non-EU-country entity (directly or indirectly through one or more intermediary undertakings, including concerning technology transfer). As entities affiliated to beneficiary, they very likely have legal or capital links to the beneficiaries. Their legal entities cannot be disclosed as it goes against commercial interest of the beneficiary (Art. 4 (2) first indent of regulation 1049/2001,) in the sense that the Grant Agreements are signed between the Commission and the Consortium (beneficiaries represented by the coordinator). Beneficiaries can designate the same tasks through affiliated entities, for which eligibility is checked. Beneficiaries are then responsible for managing the funds entrusted to them. Strictly, there is no contractual relationship between the European Commission and the affiliated entities. The contract is signed between beneficiaries and the affiliated entities. Therefore, revealing the identities of affiliated entities is prevented by Regulation 1049/2001. Further, these affiliated entities could potentially be entrusted with strategic actions in the area of defence, hence, revealing their identities could potentially pre-empt strategic orientations of member states and/or the EU, thus, disclosure of said information is also prevented by the exceptions contained in Article 4 (1) (a) of Regulation 1049/2001. In particular, these parties shall not be disclosed for the general public as they were entrusted by the actions implemented for the purposes of defence by the beneficiaries. They possess information related to strategic and organisational considerations underpinning investment decisions into defence research and development actions that could potentially shape the future defence capabilities of the Member States. There is a reasonably foreseeable and not a purely hypothetical risk that the disclosure of identified documents would undermine the protection of defence and security matters and public security. Moreover, the information contains sensitive commercial information regarding these parties and their activities. As they were entrusted by the beneficiaries to conduct very specified actions its public disclosure could be instrumentally used by the competitors, or could put the participant in a negative light, thus compromising its public image. It can be presumed that the information concerned was provided under the legitimate expectation that it would not be publicly released. Therefore, the access to this information is refused.
3. (2A) The EC MALE RPAS (100m€) contract is with OCCAR. The difference with the MALE RPAS factsheet is (100,000,000 - 98,115,022) = 1,884,978. You request us to confirm the purpose of this funding.
4. (2B) The EC ESSOR (37m€) contract is with OCCAR. The difference with the ESSOR factsheet is (37,000,000 - 34,655,931) = 2,344,069. You request us to confirm the purpose of this funding.
Regarding the purpose of the funding mentioned under points 3 and 4, please note that the difference in the funding is caused by the participation in the action of the entities that are affiliated to a beneficiary. According to Art. 187 EU Financial Regulation 2018/1046: entities affiliated to the beneficiary are:
a) entities that form a ‘sole beneficiary’ (i.e. where an entity is formed of several entities that satisfy the criteria for being awarded a grant, including where the entity is specifically established for the purpose of implementing an action to be financed by a grant);
b) entities that satisfy the eligibility criteria and that do not fall within one of the situations referred to in Article 136(1) and 141(1) and that have a link with the beneficiary, in particular a legal or capital link, which is neither limited to the action nor established for the sole purpose of its implementation.
The difference in the funding is caused by the participation in the action of the entities that are affiliated to a beneficiary, hence, the ultimate purpose is the efficient performance of the action. Beneficiaries might cooperate while performing the task with other participants involved in the action (e.g. associated partners, subcontractors) or entities affiliated to the beneficiary.
Kindest regards,
DEFIS ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS