Frontex vessels
Dear European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders,
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:
A list of all vessels currently deployed by Frontex in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean in Operations Poseidon and Triton with basic information about the fleet, including vessel names, callsign, MMSI, flag, Port of Registry, Service Speed, Vessel Type and Fuel Capacity.
Yours faithfully,
Arne Semsrott
Dear Mr Semsrott,
Thank you for your email and your interest in Frontex activities.
We would like to inform you that pursuant to Article 2(1) of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May
2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and
Commission documents, the right of access to documents is granted to a
citizen of the Union, and any natural or legal person residing or having
its registered office in a Member State.
To confirm that you are invested in the right of access to the documents
requested, it is necessary to provide an ID card/passport/residence permit
in the EU/registration in an EU Member State (legal persons). You may
however refuse to provide such document containing personal data; in that
case, your request is not going to be processed.
After receiving the above mentioned documents, we will be able to start
processing your request and will get back to you within 15 working days.
Please be informed of the following:
- The person responsible for controlling the personal data (Data
controller) is the Head of Legal Affairs Unit
- The personal data is collected for the exclusive purpose of
assessing the nationality of the applicant
- The recipients of the personal data are the 3 Frontex Staff
members (Senior Legal Officer, Junior Lawyer and Legal Assistant) handling
requests for public access for documents
- The personal data collected (that is, the document sent to the
PAD mailbox) will be deleted as soon as the access for the request
document(s) is granted or refused. In Frontex, this procedure takes no
longer than 15 or 30 working days depending on the number/size of the
requested documents. During the processing of your data, you have a right
to access your data and rectify them if needed. You have a right to have
recourse to the European Data Protection Supervisor.
Thank you very much for your understanding.
If you will have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Transparency Office
Corporate Governance
Tel: +48 22 205 9500
Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency · Plac Europejski 6,
00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501 ·
[1]www.frontex.europa.eu
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be
construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex,
unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for
the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or
dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have
received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via
e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.
Dear Mr Semsrott,
Thank you very much for your email. We will forward your request to the responsible Unit and we will get back to you within 15 working days.
In the meantime, If you will have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards,
Transparency Office
Corporate Governance
Tel: +48 22 205 9500
Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency
www.frontex.europa.eu
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex, unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.
Dear Mr Semsrott,
Please find enclosed our response.
In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards.
Transparency Office
Corporate Governance
Tel: +48 22 205 9500
Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency
www.frontex.europa.eu
Plac Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex, unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.
Dear European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I hereby am submitting a confirmatory application to my access to documents request sent on 18 June 2017 and given reference number CGO/LAU/13564a/2017. A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fron...
I. FACTS
I submitted my request on 18 June 2017 via the AsktheEU.org website which was subsequently registered by the Commission and given reference number CGO/LAU/13564a/2017 on 19 June 2017.
On 30 June 2017 I received a reply from Frontex containing a decision on my access to documents request.
I was refused access to the information due to the application of the exception laid down in the first subparagraph of Article 4(1) of Regulation 1049/2001 relating to public security.
II. SUBSTANTIVE ASSESSMENT
It should be stated from the outset that, in accordance with recital 11 of Regulation 1049/2001, the general principle is that “all documents of the institutions should be accessible to the public.” The burden is therefore on the institution to prove to the requisite legal standard that disclosure would harm public security (Article 4(1) of the Regulation).
Frontex in this case has failed to explain how disclosure of the information in question could specifically and effectively harm public security. Frontex has stated only that “disclosing information on any details related to technical equipment deployed in the current and ongoing operations would be tantamount to revealing weaknesses and strengths of the operations and opening way for abuse, including by the smuggling networks who would change their modus operandi accordingly.”
According to CJEU case-law, the exceptions in Article 4 of the Regulation must be interpreted strictly and the institution must explain how the risk of an interest being undermined must be reasonably foreseeable and must not be purely hypothetical (C-280/11 P Access Info Europe v Council at 54, and C-506/08 P Sweden v MyTravel and Commission at 76). The reasons provided by Frontex however, are at best hypothetical in nature and do not identify any specific or foreseeable harm to disclosure in this case, were the information to be disclosed.
Regarding possible smuggling networks it is not imaginable how the information in question might be new to smugglers since they are not secret in principle. The opposite is true: Whenever a Frontex vessel is in action, its flag, name and vessel type is on display. Furthermore, the European Commission and Frontex itself publish some information on its fleet, for example online at https://ec.europa.eu/epsc/publications/s....
Even if disclosure of the information constituted a harm to public security, Frontex did not take into account the possibility of partially disclosing some information.
Consequently, for the reasons stated above, Frontex has not established that access to the information in question could specifically and effectively undermine its decision making process. I wish to have full access to the information.
Yours faithfully,
Arne Semsrott
Dear Mr Semsrott,
Thank you for your email.
As your request falls under the regime of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of
the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001, we will begin
to process it and get back to you within 15 working days.
In the meantime, should you have any questions regarding your request or
public access to documents process, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Transparency Office
Corporate Governance
Tel: +48 22 205 9500
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the
External Borders,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I hereby am submitting a confirmatory application to my access to
documents request sent on 18 June 2017 and given reference number
CGO/LAU/13564a/2017. A full history of my request and all correspondence
is available on the Internet at this address:
[1]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fron...
I. FACTS
I submitted my request on 18 June 2017 via the AsktheEU.org website which
was subsequently registered by the Commission and given reference number
CGO/LAU/13564a/2017 on 19 June 2017.
On 30 June 2017 I received a reply from Frontex containing a decision on
my access to documents request.
I was refused access to the information due to the application of the
exception laid down in the first subparagraph of Article 4(1) of
Regulation 1049/2001 relating to public security.
II. SUBSTANTIVE ASSESSMENT
It should be stated from the outset that, in accordance with recital 11 of
Regulation 1049/2001, the general principle is that “all documents of the
institutions should be accessible to the public.” The burden is therefore
on the institution to prove to the requisite legal standard that
disclosure would harm public security (Article 4(1) of the Regulation).
Frontex in this case has failed to explain how disclosure of the
information in question could specifically and effectively harm public
security. Frontex has stated only that “disclosing information on any
details related to technical equipment deployed in the current and ongoing
operations would be tantamount to revealing weaknesses and strengths of
the operations and opening way for abuse, including by the smuggling
networks who would change their modus operandi accordingly.”
According to CJEU case-law, the exceptions in Article 4 of the Regulation
must be interpreted strictly and the institution must explain how the risk
of an interest being undermined must be reasonably foreseeable and must
not be purely hypothetical (C-280/11 P Access Info Europe v Council at 54,
and C-506/08 P Sweden v MyTravel and Commission at 76). The reasons
provided by Frontex however, are at best hypothetical in nature and do not
identify any specific or foreseeable harm to disclosure in this case, were
the information to be disclosed.
Regarding possible smuggling networks it is not imaginable how the
information in question might be new to smugglers since they are not
secret in principle. The opposite is true: Whenever a Frontex vessel is in
action, its flag, name and vessel type is on display. Furthermore, the
European Commission and Frontex itself publish some information on its
fleet, for example online at
[2]https://ec.europa.eu/epsc/publications/s....
Even if disclosure of the information constituted a harm to public
security, Frontex did not take into account the possibility of partially
disclosing some information.
Consequently, for the reasons stated above, Frontex has not established
that access to the information in question could specifically and
effectively undermine its decision making process. I wish to have full
access to the information.
Yours faithfully,
Arne Semsrott
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[3][FOI #4401 email]
This message and all replies from European Agency for the Management of
Operational Cooperation at the External Borders will be published on the
AsktheEU.org website. For more information see our dedicated page for EU
public officials at [4]https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency · Plac Europejski 6,
00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501 ·
[5]www.frontex.europa.eu
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be
construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex,
unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for
the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or
dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have
received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via
e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/fron...
2. https://ec.europa.eu/epsc/publications/s...
3. mailto:[FOI #4401 email]
4. https://www.asktheeu.org/en/help/officers
5. http://frontex.europa.eu/
Dear Mr Semsrott,
Please find enclosed Frontex response to the confirmatory application
submitted on 4 July 2017.
In case of any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards
Transparency Office
Corporate Governance
Tel: +48 22 205 9500
Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency · Plac Europejski 6,
00-844 Warsaw, Poland · Tel: +48 22 205 9500 · Fax: +48 22 205 9501 ·
[1]www.frontex.europa.eu
DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message, including any attachments, cannot be
construed as automatically constituting any form of commitment by Frontex,
unless its contents clearly indicate otherwise. It is intended solely for
the use of the addressee(s). Any unauthorised disclosure, use or
dissemination, either in whole or in part, is prohibited. If you have
received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately via
e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system.
References
Visible links
1. http://frontex.europa.eu/