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 which contain the following information:

Grants and funding allocated to this private business in Limerick, Ireland.

Company Vitals
-Company Name: Shelbourne -Medical Properties Limited
-Time in Business:
4 Years
-Company Number:616268
-Size:Micro Company
-Current Status: NORMAL

Principal Activity:[6810] Buying and Selling of Own Real Estate
May Trade As:Shelbourne Student Accomodation
Largest Company Shareholder:

Cooltara Trustees Limited

Registered Address:Bridge House,
Lock Quay,
Limerick,Ireland
V94 X2N6

Yours faithfully,

Madeline O'Brien

Dear BUDG ACCES DOCUMENTS,
Dear Secretariat General (SG),

Thank you for your response, in which you ask for my postal address, which you state is "required" for registering and handling my request in line with the "procedural requirements".

I would like this to be considered as a confirmatory application against your refusal to process my request without a postal address.

The right of access to EU documents is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 42 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and set out in Article 15 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. My request was made in exercise of that right.

Article 15 of the TFEU makes clear that the principles for and limits on exercise of the right of access to documents “shall be determined by the European Parliament and the Council, by means of regulations, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure” and that any Rules of Procedure adopted by the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the EU must be “in accordance with [these] regulations.” The Regulation currently in force is Regulation 1049/2001.

According to Regulation 1049/2001, the only things which may be "required" of an applicant in order for a request to be registered are found in Article 6.1, which includes an exhaustive list: applications must be made in "any written form", in one of the official languages, and in a "sufficiently precise manner to enable the institution to identify the document". I have met all of these requirements.

At no point does the Regulation mention that the requester must provide his or her postal address before the request can even be registered.

Indeed, since it was adopted in 2001, many requesters have exercised the right to documents under this Regulation without the need to provide a postal address.

Furthermore, the Regulation states that requests for access to documents should be handled "promptly" and in Article 15 there is an explicit reference to the need to "develop good administrative practices in order to facilitate the exercise of the right of access guaranteed by this Regulation."

The refusal to register a request if the citizen involved does not provide a postal address is contrary to the principles of good administration which require that officials “shall in particular avoid restricting the rights of the citizens … when those restrictions … are not in a reasonable relation with the purpose of the action pursued” (Code of Good Administrative Behaviour, Article 6). Delaying registering a request for want of a postal address in the 21st Century when emails are a common means of communicating with public administrations is an unnecessary impediment. It also serves to delay the processing of requests sent to the institutions, which constitutes an unreasonable and disproportionate impediment to the exercise of the fundamental right of access to EU documents.

Finally, in your response you have not indicated which "procedural requirements" you are referring to, which leaves me little certainty as to which procedural steps I now need to follow in order to exercise my right of access to documents. I am therefore requesting a copy of these requirements in order to know where I stand legally.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Yours sincerely,

Madeline O'Brien

Dear BUDG ACCES DOCUMENTS,

Thank you for your help in redirecting to the https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/docume...
Register of Commission Documents
Welcome to the Register of Commission documents.

Here you can find various types of Commission documents such as proposals, impact assessments, communications, delegated and implementing acts and other Commission decisions, agendas and minutes of meetings held by the College of Commissioners.

I find this tool to be ineffective in its purpose as I am limited in writing my request by character (input) limitation of this from filling exercise https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/docume...

I only hope that my original and secondary request will get through this channel (https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/docume...) for access to my requested access

I will update here if this tool is successfully or NOT successful

Yours sincerely,

Madeline O'Brien

Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,

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 'Grants and funding allocated to private business in Limerick, Ireland'.

[ GIVE DETAILS ABOUT YOUR COMPLAINT HERE ]

The response to my request is long overdue. by law, under all circumstances, the authority should have responded by now
The EU has failed to answer your request within the specified deadline.

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/grant...

Yours faithfully,

Madeline O'Brien