Dear Climate Action,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting all documents related to the trip of Climate Commissioner Hoekstra to Azerbaijan on 20 June 2024, particularly those documents that concern COP29 and the EU and Azerbaijan's Strategic Energy Partnership.

This should include all preparatory documents for the trip, such as agendas, briefings and correspondence with Azeri officials and other DGs; any minutes or correspondence with government or non-government stakeholders in Brussels about the trip and meetings to be held there; all minutes and summaries of meetings held while there; all follow-up correspondence, political conclusions and policy documents and briefings produced as a result.

Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido
Corporate Europe Observatory
Mundo-Matongé
26 Rue d'Edimbourg
Bruxelles 1050
Belgium

Dear Climate Action,

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 'Hoekstra trip to Azerbaijan'.

As my request was neither acknowledged nor responded to, I am escalating it and asking for am internal review.
Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido

Dear Climate Action,

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 'Hoekstra trip to Azerbaijan'.

My request was eventually responded to by DG CLIMA, but the Directorate claimed there were no documents matching the demand.

Given that Hoekstra is the Commissioner for climate and that he was in Azerbaijan to discuss COP29 (which is a file held by DG CLIMA), I find it extremely hard to believe that there were no preparatory documents from DG CLIMA such as briefings, position papers, preparatory meetings and accompanying minutes, updates, or other intel that would be necessary for Commissioner Hoekstra to represent the institution while in Azerbaijan.

Please can you go back and retrieve the relevant documents.

Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido

Dear Climate Action,

Thank you for your response and I look forward to the documents as soon as they've been identified.

Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido

Dear Climate Action,

This request is now long overdue - 3 days past the second time limit set.

Can you please let me know when to expect the documents, and if you have any of them already identified, please provide them on a rolling basis.

Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido

Dear [email address],

Thank you for your response, and I look forward to the release of the documents.

Yours sincerely,

Pascoe Sabido

Dear Climate Action,

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 'Hoekstra trip to Azerbaijan'.

There are two issues I would like to raise regarding the documents you produced:

1) you do not disclose document 2, stating "disclosure would undermine the protection of international relations". I want to challenge this. I understand that parts of it might, but I fail to see how redacting those parts would not render it shareable. DG ENER has previously disclosed briefings prepared for meetings with Azerbaijani officials, where parts that are considered to endanger international relations are redacted. Please can you review document 2 and the possibility of disclosing it.

2) The documents disclosed are all from before the trip. Given the common practice within the Commission of providing summaries and notes after a trip, they appear to be missing. As do any other forms of communication that would be included in such a trip, such as thanks yous, follow-ups, arranging the next meeting, confirming areas to keep working on together. Please can you search to see if these exists and provide them if they do.

Yours faithfully,

Pascoe Sabido