Global Gateway Business Advisory Group

Lora Verheecke made this access to documents request to International Partnerships

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, International Partnerships should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear International Partnerships,

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:

1) - All incoming or outgoing correspondence (including emails, sent or received) between DG INTPA officials (including the Commissioner and Cabinet members) and members of the Global Gateway Business Advisory Group from the 1st of January 2023 until today.

2) - A list of meetings, including detailed agenda, minutes and any other reports of such meetings, between DG INTPA officials (including the Commissioner and Cabinet members) and members of the Global Gateway Business Advisory Group from the 1st of January 2023 until today.

Should my request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions referring to specific exemptions in the regulation. Also I expect the partial release of documents, in case of partial exemption according to article 4.6.

Yours faithfully,

Lora Verheecke
rue du Bronze 9
1070 Brussels

Dear Sir or Madam,

We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 11/07/2024 and registered on 11/07/2024 under the case number
2024/3708.

We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 01/08/2024. 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 International Partnerships - Access to Documents
European Commission

References

Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...

Dear Ms Verheecke,

We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 11^th July 2024 under the following case numbers: 2024/3308,
2024/3309 and 2024/3310.

We are currently working on your requests. 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 1 August 2024.

The three requests involve different services which must be consulted and
this requires more time.

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 23 August 2024.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind regards,

INTPA E3 Secretariat

References

Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...

Dear Ms Verheecke,

We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 11^th July 2024 under the following case numbers: 2024/3308,
2024/3309 and 2024/3310.

The three requests involve different services which must be consulted and
this requires more time.

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 23 August 2024.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind regards,

INTPA E3 Secretariat

References

Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...

fair solution proposal initial EN 2024 3708 and 3710 e3 310724.pdf

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Hello,

Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2024/3708.

Kind regards,

Dear International Partnerships,

I would like to apologise for my late reply and thank you for your fair solution proposal.
Regarding this specific request, I agree to limiting my request to a list of meetings, including detailed agenda, minutes and any other reports of such meetings, between DG INTPA officials (including the Commissioner and Cabinet members) and members of the Global Gateway Business Advisory Group from the 1st of January 2023 until today.
I therefore leave aside the other part of my request on all incoming or outgoing correspondence.
Yours faithfully,

Lora Verheecke

Partial reply 2024 3708.pdf

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INTPA Briefing 17.04.2024.pdf

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List of identified documents and type of disclosure.pdf

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Hello,

Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2024/3708.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,

Dear International Partnerships,

Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Global Gateway Business Advisory Group'.
I understand that my original request was extremely broad according to the Commission. I thus limited my request on 27th August 2024.
I believe that my reduced request has not been taken into account by the Commission.
At the very least, I expect to receive a list of meetings between INTPA and the Global Gateway Business Advisory Group. Instead, I only received one briefing for one meeting between a member of the group and INTPA. I asked for a list of meetings of the advisory group (not one of its member) and INTPA.
I would like to argue for an overriding public interest in disclosure. In this regard, I would like to point that the Global Gateway mobilises €300 billion of public money and thus European taxpayers have the right to know how often the Global Gateway Business Advisory Group is being consulted. Furthermore, some of the members of this group are beneficiaries of Global Gateway projects. There is just a public interest in making sure that there are no conflict of interests in the interactions between DG INTPA and the Global Business Advisory Group.
Failure to disclose the details of the interactions between the Advisory Group and the Commission makes an independent assessment of Commission actions in this area impossible, and thereby contradicts demands from civil society and journalists organizations from across Europe for more transparency on the use of public funds by the European institutions.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/glob...

Yours faithfully,

Lora Verheecke

Dear Sir or Madam,

We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2024/3708, sent on 03/09/2024 and registered on 03/09/2024.

We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 24/09/2024. 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 Ms Verheecke,

We refer to your email, registered on 3 September 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 24 September 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 15 October 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 Ms Verheecke,

We are contacting you in relation to your confirmatory application
submitted to the Secretariat-General on 3 September 2024, for the request
EASE 2024/3708.

In its initial reply of 19 August 2024, the Directorate-General for
International Partnerships has identified two documents as falling within
the scope of your request, namely:

• Briefing for DG Koen Doens, reference BASIS(INTPA/4754), (hereafter
‘document 1’), which includes the following annex:
• ROUTE STUDY FOR BRUSSELS AIRLINES (hereafter ‘document1.1’).

Due to the wide scope of your initial request, the Directorate-General
sent you a ‘fair solution proposal’ on 31 July 2024. However you have
replied to it only after the initial reply was sent (see initial reply
Ares(2024)6096849 of 19 August 2024). Consequently, the initial reply was
limited to these two documents. The Directorate-General for International
Partnerships has granted you partial access to document 1, while refusing
to grant access to document 1.1.

When assessing a confirmatory application for access to documents
submitted pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the
Secretariat-General conducts a review of the reply given by the
Directorate-General concerned at the initial stage. Nonetheless, in your
confirmatory application of 3 September 2024, you do not seem to contest
the position taken by the Directorate-General with respect to the two
documents identified, but you rather contest the scope of the request and
you specify that you are interested in receiving other type of documents.

Consequently, in order to ensure the proper handling of your request, the
Secretariat-General would like to ask you whether you are still interested
in the review of the initial reply, as far as the disclosure of the two
documents identified and mentioned above is concerned.

Regarding the part of your confirmatory application, whereby you specify
that you are interested in receiving other type of documents than those
identified, please note that a new initial request will be registered and
attributed to the Directorate-General for International Partnerships. The
latter may further contact you in case it needs more clarifications from
your side regarding the exact documents you are interested in.

Should you confirm that you are not interested in the review by the
Secretariat-General of the two documents identified in the scope of the
initial reply (see above, Ares(2024)6096849 of 19 August 2024) , the
confirmatory application EASE 2024/3708 will be subsequently closed.

We would appreciate to receive your reply by 27 September 2024.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

SG.C1 - Access to documents

Dear Ms Verheecke,

We would like to kindly remind you of the Secretariat's - General email of
24 September 2024. Please kindly reply to this email by 1 October 2024.

Please note that if we do not receive your reply by this date, we will
proceed with the closure of the current confirmatory application EASE
2024/3708 and with the registration of the new initial request, as
announced in the email of 24 Setpmeber 2024, unless you inform us that you
are no longer interested.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Kind regards,

SG.C1 - Access to documents

Dear Sir or Madam,

We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 02/10/2024 and registered on 02/10/2024 under the case number
2024/5127.

We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 23/10/2024. 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,

Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission

References

Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...

clarification request 2024 5127.pdf

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Hello,

Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2024/5127.

Kind regards,

INTPA E3

Dear International Partnerships,

Thank you for registering a new request on the part of my confirmatory application whereby I specify
that I am interested in receiving other type of documents than those identified.

Yours faithfully,

Lora Verheecke

Dear Lora Verheecke,

We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 2 October 2024 under case number 2024/5127.

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 5 November 2024.

The request involves different services which must be consulted, and this
requires more time. We are currently working on several parallel requests.

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 26 November 2024.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Kind regards,

References

Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...

outgoing correspondence.pdf

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Dear Ms Verheecke,