Information about IMR presumable false accounting and the Response given by Madame Viviane Reding to European Parliament

Waiting for an internal review by Justice and Consumers of their handling of this request.

Your Excellency Madame Vice-President Reding,

Thank you for this responses:
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r...

and for these documents attached to your responses :
1) http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r...
2)
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r...

As the reply is incomplete or some of the documents I requested were not attached, under the right of access to documents stipulated in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am lodging the present confirmatory application, requesting again documents which contain the following information:

(1). - All correspondence, minutes and logs of phone calls between
Your Excellency and Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) from 16 January 2012 onwards.

I received the correspondence with Danish Ministry of Justice but not with DIHR. I reiterate here my request to have access to Your Excellency`s correspondence, minutes and logs with DIHR (i.e. DIHR leadership). For identification of this institute, called also Institut for Menneskerettigheder (IMR), please see the reply given by Your Excellency to an Honorable member of European Parliament, Mr Morten Messerschmidt:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getD...

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getA...

I also request access to:

2). - All correspondence, minutes and logs of phone calls between
staff members of Your Excellency`s services and Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) from 16 January 2012 onwards.

3). - Information about follow on Your Excellency`s last paragraph of the Reply given to European Parliament (i.e. OLAF may perform investigations on the alleged false accounting). More specifically I would like to receive information if this letter of European Parliament to OLAF http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/452/r... was sent following your response specified above.

Also I would like to receive information about which out of these 4 OLAF investigations listed here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/453/r... is the one you refered in your response given to European Parliament. Would be possible to receive details on these 4 OLAF investigation and if Your Excellency was aware of?

Yours faithfully,

Mariano Delgado

Dear Justice (JUST), Dear Director of European Commission Justice Department,

I would appreciate if you could refer this additional request to Her Excellency, Madame Reding. I sent the first request a few days ago, but some new facts occurred and some old facts were disclosed to public and I make this supplement by requesting:

All information, documents, notes, minutes and correspondence of Ms Viviane Reding in respect of the following facts occurred at Fundamental Rights Agency

a) Violation by FRA leadership of fundamental right to privacy and data protection. See findings of EDPS here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/459/r...
http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/reque...

b) Apparent condoning of harassment by the FRA leadership which triggers recurrence of facts of harassment. After the previous cases http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/do... http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/... I see a new case opened in 2013 here
http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/cases/...

c) Strange and/or irregular management of staff by FRA leadership, which leads to several cases as provided here in the replies of FRA : http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/how_m...
and here http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/tende... (see the assignments to different lawyers) and several inquiries http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/453/r....

I would like to request information and documents on this old case http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/459/r... and how it was resolved by European Commission previous Commissioner for Justice and fundamental rights (Mr Frattini). Many thanks.

Yours faithfully,

Mariano Delgado

Justice and Consumers

Dear Mr Delgado,
 
Thank you for your email sent on 30 June where you lodge a confirmatory
application.  My reply follows the structure of your request.
 
        Point 1
 
You asked for the correspondence between Vice President Reding and the
Danish Institute for Human Rights.
 
We have provided you in our previous reply with the documentation for the
reference period that you had requested in your initial request (your
email of 29 March 2013). For the sake of clarity, let me recall that we
provided access to the following document:
[1]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r...
 
The reason why we gave access to this correspondence with the Danish
Minister of Justice, is because this concerned an event to which the
Danish Institute for Human Rights took part, which was the focus of your
request for access to documents.
 
We are not aware of any further exchanges between Vice President Reding
and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. We have thus no other documents
to submit. We apologise if the previous reply was not clear in this
respect. We would point out that access to documents has not been refused
in this case, and therefore a confirmatory application does not seem to be
pertinent, as this applies to cases when an access to documents is
refused.
 
Point 2
 
You asked for the correspondence between staff of the private office of
Vice President Reding and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
 
We already provided you in our previous reply with the documentation for
the reference period that you indicated to us:
[2]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r...
 
The reason why we gave access to this correspondence with Permanent
Representative of Denmark to the EU, is because this concerned an event to
which the Danish Institute for Human Rights took part, which was the focus
of your request for access to documents.
 
We are not aware of any further exchanges between the staff of the private
office of Vice President Reding and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
We have thus no other documents to submit. We apologise if the previous
reply was not clear in this respect. We would point out that access to
documents has not been refused in this case, and therefore a confirmatory
application does not seem to be pertinent, as this applies to cases when
an access to documents is refused.
 
Point 3
 
Please be informed that we have asked the European Anti-Fraud Office to
respond to you directly.
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
Tel. +32-2-29 69463
Gsm. +32-498-9 69463
E-mail: [email address]
 
 
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Justice and Consumers

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Delgado,
 
With the e-mail below of Mr Saastamoinen of Directorate-General for
Justice, we understand that a full access has been given to your request
for access to documents ref. GestDem 2013-1779.
Can you confirm us that your confirmatory request is now out of purpose
and can be closed?
Yours sincerely,
 
Paul SIMON
European Commission - Secretariat General
Unit SG.B.5, Transparency
 
 
 
_____________________________________________
From: SAASTAMOINEN Salla (JUST)
Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 7:27 PM
To: '[FOI #618 email]'
Cc: JUST ACCES DOCUMENTS; SG DOSSIERS ACCES; LEGRIS Gerard (SG)
Subject: RE: access to information request - Information about IMR
presumable false accounting and the Response given by Madame Viviane
Reding to European Parliament-GESTDEM 2013/3480-follow-up request
2013/1779
 
 
Dear Mr Delgado,
 
Thank you for your email sent on 30 June where you lodge a confirmatory
application.  My reply follows the structure of your request.
 
        Point 1
 
You asked for the correspondence between Vice President Reding and the
Danish Institute for Human Rights.
 
We have provided you in our previous reply with the documentation for the
reference period that you had requested in your initial request (your
email of 29 March 2013). For the sake of clarity, let me recall that we
provided access to the following document:
[1]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r...
 
The reason why we gave access to this correspondence with the Danish
Minister of Justice, is because this concerned an event to which the
Danish Institute for Human Rights took part, which was the focus of your
request for access to documents.
 
We are not aware of any further exchanges between Vice President Reding
and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. We have thus no other documents
to submit.  We apologise if the previous reply was not clear in this
respect. We would point out that access to documents has not been refused
in this case, and therefore a confirmatory application does not seem to be
pertinent, as this applies to cases when an access to documents is
refused.
 
Point 2
 
You asked for the correspondence between staff of the private office of
Vice President Reding and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
 
We already provided you in our previous reply with the documentation for
the reference period that you indicated to us:
[2]http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/441/r...
 
The reason why we gave access to this correspondence with Permanent
Representative of Denmark to the EU, is because this concerned an event to
which the Danish Institute for Human Rights took part, which was the focus
of your request for access to documents.
 
We are not aware of any further exchanges between the staff of the private
office of Vice President Reding and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
We have thus no other documents to submit.  We apologise if the previous
reply was not clear in this respect. We would point out that access to
documents has not been refused in this case, and therefore a confirmatory
application does not seem to be pertinent, as this applies to cases when
an access to documents is refused.
 
Point 3
 
Please be informed that we have asked the European Anti-Fraud Office to
respond to you directly.
 
Yours sincerely, 
 
Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
Tel. +32-2-29 69463
Gsm. +32-498-9 69463
E-mail: [3][email address]
 
 
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Dear Justice (JUST),

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Justice (JUST)'s handling of my FOI request 'Information about IMR presumable false accounting and the Response given by Madame Viviane Reding to European Parliament'.

1. Apparently there were contacts between services of Vice-President and Danish Institute for Human Rights. Therefore my reply to your question of 12.07.2013 is that I am still awaiting relevant information about contacts of Mr Paul Nemitz and Ms Brands Kehris with DIHR, and access to the written and audio/video content of this speech of the Vice-President of European Commission, as mentioned here http://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files... , and in general all related correspondence, notes, minutes, logs.

2. I request information if the issues mentioned here http://cphpost.dk/news/national/foreign-... (publication date 16 January 2012) and here http://www.turtlebayandbeyond.org/2012/h... (publication date 13 March 2012) were addressed by Vice-President in Video Speech delivered on 15 March 2012 15:00 (see the link above).

3. My request of 9 July 2013 was not addressed at all and therefore I respectfully request access to the relevant information and documents.

4. I would like to have access to information about EC Justice Department`s Policy of addressing requests to access documents, i.e. if usually Vice-President is informed when citizens mentions grave and sensitive issues about alleged fraud, corruption, irregularities, violation of human rights, harassment cases etc., all occurred at an agency in charge with fundamental human rights under direct responsibility of Vice-President or EC services alone are in charge with dealing with the replies and Vice-President is not informed. All the replies I received and replies I read in asktheeu, originating from EC services, are not clear enough and is difficult indeed to assert if there is or not a kind of protection - covering - "do not care" attitude vis-à-vis those facts or if this is the policy applicable. In order to make a correct view and subsequent analysis, I would appreciate receiving a complete and clear reply. Thank you very much indeed.

-----

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

Yours faithfully,

Mariano Delgado

Justice and Consumers

Dear Mr Delgado,

Thank you for your email sent on 9 July.

You have requested access to the different documents relating to management issues in the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) under points a), b) and c) of your email. In this respect, please note in general that FRA is an independent entity and that the Commission bears no responsibility for the daily management of the tasks of FRA.

Point a)
We have not identified any documents of Ms Viviane Reding in respect of the facts occurred in 2008 that are referred to the EDPS document that you mention in your message. There are thus no documents of Ms Viviane Reding to send on this point.

The EDPS decision refers to a letter sent by the FRA to the Commission/DG JLS in 2009. If your request concerns this letter that contains personal data, I would ask you to explain your interest on getting access to the letter, since this is necessary for the documents including personal data. I would also ask you to indicate your postal address for possible sending of the letter by mail, after the Commission has considered the need to disclose it.

Point b)
The cases under investigation by the Ombudsman that you refer concern the Fundamental Rights Agency. As mentioned above, the FRA is an independent entity, and the Ombudsman is carrying out the investigation directly with the agency. The Commission does not have documents on the case. There are thus no documents of Ms Viviane Reding that we could send on this point.

Point c)
The court cases, investigations and replies to the access to documents requests that you refer under this point concern the Fundamental Rights Agency. As mentioned above, the FRA is an independent entity, and deals with such cases by itself. The Commission does not have documents on the cases. There are thus no documents of Ms Viviane Reding that we could send on this point.

In addition, you request information and documents and refer to an article published on 5 July 2007 in the Kurier newspaper. I regret to inform you that we are not in a position to examine this point due to the fact that it is vaguely formulated and we are not able to identify which possible documents you would mean. With more precise description of the documents that you wish to have, we could be able make a new search.

Yours faithfully,

Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
E-mail: [email address]

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Justice and Consumers

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Dear Mr Delgado,

 

I refer to your e-mail of 30 June 2013 in relation to the abovementioned
matter. OLAF is presently finalizing its response to that part of your
request for information which concerns this office. I am confident you
will have OLAF's response within the next fortnight.

 

Your sincerely,

 

 

 

  [1]cid:image001.png@01CE1437.0F722A20

European Commission

DG OLAF

Unit C.4- Legal advice

 

 

 

References

Visible links

Dear Justice (JUST),

Thank you for your reply.

I am awaiting the pending reply which you assigned to OLAF. After reading it I will submit you my contact details in order to allow you to comply with my request to access the JLS letter, which you offered to provide.

I would like also to know the position of representatives of European Commission in Management Board of FRA in respect of the facts raised.

Which is the law saying that EC relevant departments in charge with fundamental rights shall remain silent when came across with situations as those occurred at FRA?.

I see that FRA issued a warning as a reply to some Requests to access documents http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/artic...

Which is the position of European Commission representatives in FRA Governing Board in respect to such attitude?

Yours faithfully,

Mariano Delgado

Justice and Consumers

Dear Mr Delgado,

On the basis of the information provided in your email of 9 July, we were not in a position to identify or track down information, documents, notes, minutes and correspondence of Vice President Viviane Reding or of the former Commissioner Franco Frattini relating to

a) Decision of the European Data Protection Supervisor on a complaint against the Fundamental Rights Agency concerning transfers of personal date, of 17 February 2009 (ref 2008-643).
Please note, first, that the decision concerns the actions of the Fundamental Rights Agency that is an independent body and has thus dealt with the complaint case independently. Second, there are some documents referred to in the Decision as documents that the FRA has transmitted to DG ADMIN and DG JLS of the European Commission in 2007-2008. If your request concerns these documents, please note that they contain personal data. The Court of Justice of the EU has ruled in case C-28/08P, Bavarian Lager Case C-28/08 P Commission v Bavarian Lager, judgement of 29/06/2010, OJ C 79 29/03/2008, that, when a request for public access concerns documents containing personal data, the provisions of Regulation 45/2001 becomes applicable in their entirety, including the provision requiring the recipient of personal data to establish the need for their disclosure and the provision which confers on the data subject the right to object any time, on compelling legitimate grounds relating to his or her particular situation, to the processing of data relating to him or her.

b) JUDGMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION CIVIL SERVICE TRIBUNAL (First Chamber) 18 September 2012 (Civil service – Duty of assistance – Article 24 of the Staff Regulations – Psychological harassment – Administrative inquiry) and complaint to Ombudsman against the Fundamental Rights Agency on "The work relations with and the treatment of a Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) employee " Case: 0178/2013/MMN
Please note that the judgement concerns the actions of the Fundamental Rights Agency that is an independent body and has thus dealt with the court case and respectively with the complaint independently.

c) Fundamental Rights Agency's replies to the access to documents request relating to court cases and ombudsman complaints against the Fundamental Rights Agency and Decisions of the OLAF to close investigations against the Fundamental Rights Agency without recommendations
Please note that the court cases and ombudsman complaints concerns the actions of the Fundamental Rights Agency that is an independent body and has thus dealt with the court case and respectively with the complaints independently. The same applies to the complaints to OLAF.

- The press article of Kurier 5 July 2007,

As regards the last point, press article of Kurier 5 July 2007, you also ask for information how allegations mentioned in the article were resolved by European Commission previous Commissioner for Justice and fundamental rights (Mr Frattini). The article refers to accusations concerning the work assignments and the qualifications of the interim director in 2007, right after the establishment of the Fundamental Rights Agency in March 2007. The Commission has since then ensured that all tasks given to the Commission in Regulation (EC) No 168/2008 establishing the Fundamental Rights Agency have been carried out, including proposal for a permanent Director fulfilling the qualifications of Article 15 of the Regulation and the setting up of the Management Board of the Agency that are in charge of the running and management of the Agency, in accordance with the division of tasks stipulated in the Regulation.

Yours faithfully,

Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
E-mail: [email address]

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Justice and Consumers

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Dear Mr Delgado,

Thank you for your email sent on 13 July. Below you find our reply to your requests for access to documents.

Point 1

Upon receipt of your request we checked whether there was any such correspondence or records of any such contacts between Mr Paul Nemitz and the Danish Institute for Human Rights, for the reference period mentioned in your email. Nothing showed up, therefore, as far as we can be aware, there has been no such correspondence or contacts.

We are not in a position to respond on behalf of Ms Ilze Brands Kehris, as she is not working for the Commission.

Point 2

The issues raised in the newspaper articles enclosed to your email were not addressed in the Video speech delivered by Vice President Viviane Reding on 15 March 2012, on the occasion of Seminar "Bringing the Charter to Life", co-organised by the Danish Presidency of the European Union and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). The video message of Vice President Reding is available on the website of FRA (http://fra.europa.eu/en/news/2012/fra-da...).

Point 3

A separate reply has been sent to you on 31 July 2013.

Point 4

Please find enclosed the relevant documents regarding the handling of request for access to documents by the Commission.

Yours faithfully,

Salla Saastamoinen
--------------------------------
Head of Unit
JUST.C.1 Fundamental rights and rights of the child
Directorate General Justice
European Commission
E-mail: [email address]

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