Sent by email only : [1][FOI #3996 email]

Dear Mr. Vranken,

I refer to your application for access to documents dated 15 February
2017, as well as to your reminder of 09 March 2017 and the request for a
confirmatory application filed on 13 March 2017, all of which were sent by
e-mail via the “asktheeu.org” platform. The Agency has only recently
become aware of these messages and would like to take this opportunity to
apologise for the undue delay in the processing of your application.

In your original application you request access to the following
documents:

(1)      a list of meetings of EDA officials and/or representatives and
representatives of individual companies, including lobby consultancies and
law firms, and/or industry associations, in which the upcoming Preparatory
Action (PA) on Defence Research and the European Defence Research
Programme (EDRP) were dealt with ;

(2)      minutes and other reports of these meetings;

(3)      all correspondence (including emails) between EDA officials
and/or representatives and representatives of individual companies
(including lobby consultancies and law firms) and/or industry
associations, in which the PA on Defence Research and the EDRP were dealt
with;

(4)      a list of invitees to the annual EDA conference of 2016 and the
organisations /institutions /companies these invitees represent.

In that respect, I would like to provide you with the following
information:

With regard to point (1), EDA does not hold “a list of meetings” such as
the one described in your request, however we can inform you that two
workshops co-organised by EDA and the European Commission related to the
Preparatory Action took place and fall within your request :

·      “The Preparatory Action : Industry’s Views” (30 March 2015)
attended by EDA participating Member State and industry/private sector
representatives

·      “The Preparatory Action: content and technology priorities” (20
October 2015) attended by EDA participating Member States and
industry/private sector representatives.

In addition to these two workshops, industry was invited to participate in
specific sessions of Member State meetings relating to the Preparatory
Action : two meetings of the Working Group on IPRs on 07 April 2016 and 11
May 2016; and one Preparatory Action Coordination meeting on 08 April
2016.

Lastly, an EDA Info Day on the Preparatory Action took place on 27 June
2017. This Info Day was a public event open to  interested parties and
accessible upon prior registration.

With regards to the European Defence Research Programme (EDRP), no
documents have been identified in relation to your request under point
(1).

With regard to point (2) and in light of the above, we can provide you
with the following documents :

·         Workshops of 30 March 2015 and 20 October 2015 – Invitations,
agendas, minutes and position paper[2][1] (see Attachment 1 – 8
documents).

·         Working Group on IPRs of 07 April 2016 (6^th meeting) and 11 May
2016 (7^th meeting) – draft agenda and draft minutes (See Attachment 2 – 4
documents). It should be noted that the minutes of these WGs are provided
in draft form as they were never finally adopted.

·         PA Coordination meeting of 08 April 2016 – Invitation and
position paper^1  (see Attachment 3 – 2 documents). There were no minutes
of this meeting.

·         EDA Info Day of 27 June 2017, all information is publicly
available under
[3]https://www.eda.europa.eu/info-hub/event...
and the presentations are available for download under
[4]https://www.b2match.eu/padr2017 .

Please note that some of the documents requested contain personal data
which has been redacted in line with Article 4.1 (b) of Regulation (EC)
1049/2001.[5][2]

With regard to point (3), your request relates to a very large number of
documents. In order to process this part of your application, I would
kindly ask you to clarify the nature, subject or topic of the document you
request access.

With regard to point (4), the list of invitees to the EDA Annual
Conference 2016 is also attached. As it contains personal data, the name
and surname of invitees has been redacted in line with Article 4.1b of
Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 (see Attachment 4 – 1 document).

I trust the documents provided address your original request. If not, and
in accordance with Article 7.2 of Regulation, you may, within 15 working
days of receiving this email, make a confirmatory application asking EDA
to reconsider its position.

The confirmatory application should be sent to the address or email
indicated below.

With best regards,

EDA

European Defence
Agency
[6]cid:image001.png@01D14713.057F6200 Rue des Drapiers
17-23
B-1050 Brussels
(Belgium)
+32 (0)2 504 28 00

  [7][EDA request email]
 

[8]www.eda.europa.eu

***

1.       The position papers provided originate from Third Parties and are
publicly available on-line. EDA discloses these for information only and
these cannot be re-used without the agreement of the originators who hold
copyrights on them. The positions expressed are those of the authors and
do not reflect the position of EDA.

2.       Article 4.1 (b) of Regulation 1049/2001 provides that access to a
document shall be refused where disclosure would undermine the protection
of privacy and integrity of the individual, in accordance with EU Data
Protection legislation. Article 4.6 provides for the possibility of
partial disclosure of documents covered by the exceptions under Article 4.

Annex: Attachments with requested documents

Attachment 1

Att. 1.1 - Invitation CSDP related research 30 03 2015 redacted

Att. 1.2 - 2015-3-30-WS3-FINAL AGENDA redacted

Att. 1.3 -
ASD_Position_Paper_on_EC_Preparatory_Action_Defence_Research_06_02_2015

Att. 1.4 - Workshop3_FINAL MINUTES redacted

Att. 1.5 - Invitation letter redacted

Att. 1.6 - PA WS 5 agenda redacted

Att. 1.7 - EDA201601094[0] COMM final minutes of Workshop 5 on the
Preparatory Action

Att. 1.8 - EDA201601094[0]_WS5-FINAL minutes

Attachment 2

Att. 2.1 - Draft Agenda IPR WG Meeting VI

Att. 2.2 - draft minutes_meeting6 WG IPR redacted

Att. 2.3 - Draft Agenda IPR WG Meeting VII

Att. 2.4 - draft minutes_meeting7 WG IPR redacted

Attachment 3

Att. 3.1 - EDA Letter EDA201603081 - Joint meeting industry PA redacted

Att. 3.2 - ASD - The Technology content of the EC PA on Defence 22 March
2016

Attachment 4

Att.4.1 - AC16 invitees - Ind., lobby, law firms, associations - DP
redacted

------------------------

[9][1] The position papers provided originate from Third Parties and are
publicly available on-line. EDA discloses these for information only and
these cannot be re-used without the agreement of the originators who hold
copyrights on them. The positions expressed are those of the authors and
do not reflect the position of EDA.

[10][2] Article 4.1 (b) of Regulation 1049/2001 provides that access to a
document shall be refused where disclosure would undermine the protection
of privacy and integrity of the individual, in accordance with EU Data
Protection legislation. Article 4.6 provides for the possibility of
partial disclosure of documents covered by the exceptions under Article 4.

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Dear M. Vranken,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 12/07/2015. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, confirming the point (3) of your original application.

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application will be handled within 15 working days. The time limit will expire on 4/08/2017. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

You have lodged your application via the AsktheEU.org website. Please note that this is a private website which has no link with any institution of the European Union. Therefore the Agency cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.

Yours faithfully,
EDA

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Dear Mr. Vranken,
We refer to your email of 12 July 2017 confirming your application for access to “all correspondence (including emails) between EDA officials and/or representatives and representatives of individual companies (including lobby consultancies and law firms) and/or industry associations, in which the PA on Defence Research and the EDRP were dealt with;” as well as our response in acknowledgment dated 14 July 2017.

Having done a general estimate of the documents held by EDA corresponding with your request, EDA restates that the number of documents is far too voluminous to be handled in accordance with Regulation 1049/2001. Indeed, the search for EDA-industry specific correspondence would require an individual screening of that correspondence by the relevant staff members, outside of their normal activities. This exercise carries in our view an excessive administrative burden which is disproportionate as compared to the objective of the applications and contrary to the principle of good administration. Consequently, we are unable to handle this part of your request in its present form.

Nevertheless, and in order to assist you in your request, EDA would again kindly suggest that you narrow the scope of your request, so as to reduce it to a more manageable amount of documents, perhaps by adding the industry/law firm name you seek or specify other elements (name of addressee, time span, specific keyword in subject, …) that would allow EDA to perform a more targeted and time efficient search for documents.

In consequence, the deadline of 04 August 2017 communicated to you in our acknowledgement of 14 July 2017 will be suspended until we will receive an answer to our request to narrow the scope of your request, if you so wish.

With best regards,
EDA

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Dear M.Vranken,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 26/07/2017, providing additional details on your request for access.

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application will be handled within 15 working days. The time limit will expire on 16/08/2017. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

You have lodged your application via the AsktheEU.org website. Please note that this is a private website which has no link with any institution of the European Union. Therefore the Agency cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.

Yours faithfully,
EDA

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Dear Mr Vranken,

Referring to your e-mail dated 26/07/2017 and to our subsequent reply of
27/07/2017 (see below), we hereby have to inform you that due to the heavy
workload required by your request, we unfortunately cannot keep the
16/08/2017 deadline set in our last mail which, therefore, has to be
extended for another 15 working days, until 06/09/2017. Thank you for your
understanding.

We remind you again that you have lodged your application via the
AsktheEU.org website. Please note that this is a private website which has
no link with any institution of  the European Union. Therefore the Agency
cannot be held  accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to
the use of this system.

Yours faithfully,

EDA

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Dear Mr. Vranken,

Further to our email of 10/08/2017 and with reference to the email
exchange regarding your access to document request, please find attached
the additional documents which were retrieved following the word search
based on your indications, namely:

“all correspondence between the EDA and the following
companies/associations between 01/01/2015 and 31/12/2016 on the PADR :

- ASD

- Thales

- BAE Systems

- Airbus

- Leonardo

- Rheinmetall

- DCNS

- Dassault

- MBDA

- Rolls Royce

- Safran

- Saab

- Indra”

These are :

·         Industry to EDA – 1 email under attachment 1

·         EDA to Industry – 9 emails under attachments 2 to 7.

As before, information relating to personal data has been redacted in line
with Article 4.1b of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001.

These complement the documents sent to you previously by EDA on 12/07/2017
and should satisfactorily complete your request. For reference,
attachments 2.6 and 2.9 are the cover emails to attachments 3 and 1.5 sent
on 12/07/2017. In addition, please note that the attachments to document
2.2 have not been included – one is outside of the scope of the request
and relates to RPAS and the other one is available on-line under the
[1]EDA website.

We trust the documents provided fully address your original request. If
not, and  in accordance with Article 7.2 of Regulation, you may, within 15
working days of receiving this email, make a confirmatory application
asking EDA  to reconsider its position.

The confirmatory application should be sent to the address or email
indicated below.

With best regards,

EDA

[2]logo-eda [3]cid:image002.png@01D3218D.3787AC20 
[4][EDA request email]   

[5]cid:image003.png@01D3218D.3787AC20  +32
(0) 2 504 28 00

[6]cid:image004.png@01D3218D.3787AC20  Rue
des Drapiers 17-23,  B-1050 Brussels,
Belgium
[7][IMG][8][IMG][9]cid:image014.jpg@01D3218D.3787AC20

From: Information Mailbox
Sent: jeudi 10 août 2017 16:58
To: Bram Vranken <[10][FOI #3996 email]>
Subject: RE: Request for access to documents

Dear Mr Vranken,

Referring to your e-mail dated 26/07/2017 and to our subsequent reply of
27/07/2017 (see below), we hereby have to inform you that due to the heavy
workload required by your request, we unfortunately cannot keep the
16/08/2017 deadline set in our last mail which, therefore, has to be
extended for another 15 working days, until 06/09/2017. Thank you for your
understanding.

We remind you again that you have lodged your application via the
AsktheEU.org website. Please note that this is a private website which has
no link with any institution of  the European Union. Therefore the Agency
cannot be held  accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to
the use of this system.

Yours faithfully,

EDA

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Dear Mr. Vranken,

I refer to your application for access to documents dated 7 September 2017.

In your application you request access to the minutes of the following meetings:
1) Meeting with MBDA on the 15th December 2016,
2) DBU meeting on the 6th of June and
3) ASD/DRT meeting on the 15th of June.

Regarding point (1), the MBDA meeting was informal and therefore not minuted.
With regards to point (2) and (3), please note that no minutes were provided to EDA.

Kind regards,

EDA

[EDA request email]
+32 (0) 2 504 28 00
Rue des Drapiers 17-23, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

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