Framework Contracts
Helen Darbishire made this access to documents request to Secretariat General of the European Commission Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents and/or links to relevant EU web pages which provide information about framework contracts.
I would be grateful if you could pass this request to the relevant parts of the Commission, be they one or more units.
I am asking this since I am having difficulty finding an overview of framework contacts on the European Union's webpages.
I am interested in assistance in finding the following:
* A European Commission webpage which provides a detailed overview of framework contracts, what they are are, how they work, the legal basis for them, and so forth. I have found one web page (here: https://international-partnerships.ec.eu...) but it does not seem to provide a clear and comprehensive overview which explains these contracts to the public and nor does it seem to provide full details on them.
* Specific references to the relevant legal regulations governing framework contracts.
More specifically I am interested in obtaining the following information:
* For the current legislative period (2019 to 2024), a full list of all the framework contracts planned, including their objectives, the value of each contract, and with which entity they have been concluded. It would be useful also to have details on the status of these contracts, making this as up to date as possible.
* For the previous legislative period (2014 to 2019) a similar list of all framework contracts. To the extent that the contracts were implemented and closed, it would be also useful to have reference to any evaluation documents that may exist, or at least to know whether such evaluations exist and who would hold them so that specific requests can be made.
I am happy to clarify any questions you may have about this request.
For your information, my postal address remains the same.
Yours faithfully,
Helen Darbishire
Executive Director
Access Info Europe
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.
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Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
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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 Madam,
Thank you for our email.
Please be informed that your request concerning "information about framework contracts" will be treated as a request for information and you will receive a response as soon as possible from the service in charge of it.
Yours faithfully,
Access to documents team - cr
SG.C.1
Transparency
Dear Access to Documents Team
Thank you for your message.
This response is to clarify that I am not in agreement with the entirety of my request being treated as an "information" request.
I only accept that you do this for the part of the request with regard to a webpage, as that might be akin to a request for information.
Next, it is also not clear from your message which is the "service in charge of it" and the first thing that I would like is for you to be more specific about that.
Then, before converting my request for documents into an information request, I would ask that you clarify the following for me:
As to the relevant EU norms governing framework contracts, these should be documents and hence it should be possible to provide them to me as documents.
With regard to the requested lists of framework contracts, are you telling me that there are no documents at all which contain, either in part or in full, lists of framework contracts? In asking this, I here recall the broad definition of document in Regulation 1049/2001, which means that these could also be, for instance, a database containing such details or another means of storage.
At the very least it should be possible to list which kinds of documents the Commission holds with respect to framework contracts.
Therefore, before converting my request into one for information, I would ask that you confirm that no documents at all exist with details about the framework contracts for the current or previous legislative period.
To the extent that documents do indeed exist, but there are many or they are disparate, and it would take time to compile them in order answer my request fully, I am more than happy to discuss narrowing the scope to start with so that I can get a sample of such documents. I am however absolutely clear that I am interested in documents not broad/general information, and I therefore ask that my request – with the exception of the part about the web page – remain an access to documents request for now.
I am happy to discuss this with you, either in writing here, or in a phone call if that is easier to clarify any of these questions.
With best regards,
Helen Darbishire
Executive Director
Access Info Europe
Dear Ms Darbishire,
The European Commission does not have in its possession a document listing
the framework contracts with the details you mention. Please provide us
with more specific details in order to be able to identify the documents
you requested in case the information below is not sufficient for your
purpose.
Please be aware there is no webpage of the European Commission (EC)
dedicated in providing an overview for framework contracts (FWCs).
Information about the FWCs of the EC can be found in:
· [1]eTendering, an extension to TED (Tenders Electronic Daily), the
online version of the "Supplement to the Official Journal of the European
Union. You can search call for tenders for the award of FWCs.
[2]eTendering provides you with the possibility to search the call for
tenders of each DG of the Commission. Please note however that you will
need to check in each call if it concerns the award of a FWC or not.
· As of 25/10/2023, the publication of the public call for tenders
of the Commission can be found in the [3]Funding & tender portal.
· TED page of [4]Contracts awarded by EU Institutions - TED Tenders
Electronic Daily (europa.eu) (which includes all types of contracts not
only FWCs).
· The [5]Financial Transparency System which provides data as
regards the expenditure of the EC. In this database you can find
information about the specific contracts signed under the FWCs as only the
specific contracts correspond to an expenditure.
Kind regards,
BUDG ACCES DOCUMENTS
-----Original
Message------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Helen Darbishire <[6][FOI #13832 email]>
Sent: Thursday, November 9, 2023 4:31 PM
To: SG ACCES DOCUMENTS <[7][email address]>
Subject: access to documents request - Framework Contracts
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in
Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents and/or links to relevant
EU web pages which provide information about framework contracts.
I would be grateful if you could pass this request to the relevant parts
of the Commission, be they one or more units.
I am asking this since I am having difficulty finding an overview of
framework contacts on the European Union's webpages.
I am interested in assistance in finding the following:
* A European Commission webpage which provides a detailed overview of
framework contracts, what they are are, how they work, the legal basis for
them, and so forth. I have found one web page (here:
[8]https://international-partnerships.ec.eu...)
but it does not seem to provide a clear and comprehensive overview which
explains these contracts to the public and nor does it seem to provide
full details on them.
* Specific references to the relevant legal regulations governing
framework contracts.
More specifically I am interested in obtaining the following information:
* For the current legislative period (2019 to 2024), a full list of all
the framework contracts planned, including their objectives, the value of
each contract, and with which entity they have been concluded. It would be
useful also to have details on the status of these contracts, making this
as up to date as possible.
* For the previous legislative period (2014 to 2019) a similar list of all
framework contracts. To the extent that the contracts were implemented and
closed, it would be also useful to have reference to any evaluation
documents that may exist, or at least to know whether such evaluations
exist and who would hold them so that specific requests can be made.
I am happy to clarify any questions you may have about this request.
For your information, my postal address remains the same.
Yours faithfully,
Helen Darbishire
Executive Director
Access Info Europe
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References
Visible links
1. https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/general...
2. https://etendering.ted.europa.eu/cft/cft...
3. https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tender...
4. https://ted.europa.eu/TED/search/canRepo...
5. https://ec.europa.eu/budget/financial-tr...
6. mailto:[FOI #13832 email]
7. mailto:[email address]
8. https://international-partnerships.ec.eu...
9. mailto:[FOI #13832 email]
10. mailto:[SG request email]
11. mailto:[AsktheEU.org contact email]
12. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.a...
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission ([email address])
Thank you for your message and my apologies for being slow in responding. I am sure that you know how it feels.
First of all, I wish you all a very Happy New Year 2024.
I am trying to claify your response. Is it the case that for the European Citizen, there is no page which gives an overview of the Framwork Contracts issued by the various EU bodies?
If someone is interested in such contracts, how does he or she find a comprehensive overview?
Thank you in advance,
Helen Darbishire
Dear Ms Darbishire,
We confirm that there is no page providing to the European citizen an overview of all the Framework Contracts issued by the various EU bodies.
However, there are a number of webpages (mentioned in our initial reply) where the European citizen can search for information as regards the contracts of EU bodies using the search functionalities available in each page.
Kind regards,
BUDG Access documents