Internal communication on New Trade Strategy and "open strategic autonomy"
Dear Trade,
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:
- internal communication and meeting reports on the strategic review of EU trade policy and the preparation of a new EU trade strategy for the new Commission (2019-2024). These internal discussions may have started early 2019 before the European elections.
- related, internal communication and meeting reports on the response of DG Trade to the covid-19 crisis, and the development of a new key concept 'open strategic autonomy'. I am interested in all internal documents that contain reference to the new concept of 'open strategic autonomy'.
I am planning to use these documents for academic research into the EU's evolving trade strategy, and more particularly the impact of the covid-19 crisis on the EU's future trade strategy.
Yours faithfully,
Prof. Ferdi De Ville, Ghent University
Dear Sir ,
Thank you for your request for access to documents.
Unfortunately, you have not indicated your postal address. This is necessary for registering and handling your request in line with the procedural requirements.
Please send us your full postal address at your earliest convenience. Pending your reply, we reserve the right to refuse the registration of your request.
Alternatively, you may use directly the electronic form available on the Europa website:
http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/....
Best regards,
Access to Documents Team
DG TRADE
Dear Trade,
My postal address is Universiteitstraat 8 9000 Ghent. I prefer to receive the documents digitally (e.g. by email or WeTranfer).
Yours faithfully,
Ferdi De Ville
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of 4 June 2020 providing your postal address. We
hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents,
which was registered on today under reference number GESTDEM 2020/3391.
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 25
June 2020. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course.
You have lodged your application via a private third-party website, which
has no link with any institution of the European Union. Therefore, the
European Commission cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or
problems linked to the use of this system.
Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the Commission. For further information on your
rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the Commission (e.g. your private postal address).
Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.
If you do not wish that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
[1]Privacy statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Access to Documents Team
DG TRADE
---------------------------
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Mr De Ville,
We refer to your application of 4/06/2020 in which you make a request for
access to documents, registered on the same day under the reference number
GESTDEM 2020/3391.
The description given in your application is so general that a preliminary
search has shown more than hundred results in particular concerning
sectorial issues. Your application concerns though very large number of
documents, which need to be assessed individually. Such a detailed
analysis cannot be carried out within the normal time limits set out in
Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Therefore, we would like to ask if you could give us more details related
to the requested documents as for example the information about more
precise issues in your interest or the information you expect to find,
dates or periods during which the documents would have been drawn up,
persons or bodies who drafted the documents etc. Could you please specify
if you are interested in more specific issues, like export authorisation
scheme , or more general, conceptual issues, like the open strategic
autonomy. You can also provide us more detailed explanation of the
research you are carrying out.
After receiving your additional clarification, we will check if the new
elements conducted to identification of more manageable number of
documents to be assessed.
Additionally, as the issue in your interest is quite complex, we could
offer you instead a possibility to have a discussion with responsible
colleague that could answer your questions.
In order to enable us to respect the time-limits of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001, we would ask you for a swift reply within 3 working days at the
latest.
Yours faithfully,
Access to Documents Team
DG TRADE
From: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS <[DG TRADE request email]>
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2020 12:17 PM
To: Ferdi De Ville <[FOI #8006 email]>
Cc: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS <[DG TRADE request email]>
Subject: Your access to documents request - GESTDEM 2020/3391
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of 4 June 2020 providing your postal address. We
hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents,
which was registered on today under reference number GESTDEM 2020/3391.
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 25
June 2020. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course.
You have lodged your application via a private third-party website, which
has no link with any institution of the European Union. Therefore, the
European Commission cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or
problems linked to the use of this system.
Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the Commission. For further information on your
rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.
We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the Commission (e.g. your private postal address).
Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.
If you do not wish that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.
For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
[1]Privacy statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Access to Documents Team
DG TRADE
---------------------------
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Trade,
I understand that my query is relatively abstract, but I am indeed interested in internal documents related to conceptual discussions, especially about the importance of 'resilience' and 'open strategic autonomy' in the EU's trade strategy of the new Commission.
So I can only try to clarify my original request:
- I am interested in internal documents in the run-up to the public consultation on the Trade Policy Review, which will be launched next week (June 16 2020). I am aware, for example, that there have been meetings at management level in DG Trade on 'Trade Policy for the Next Commission' in the months April and May of 2019.
- I am interested in documents within DG Trade since the outbreak of covid-19 on a trade policy response around the concepts of 'resilience' and 'open strategic autonomy'. I am especially interested in discussions on how these concepts need to be defined and in how they fit the EU's trade strategy.
Yours faithfully,
Ferdi De Ville
Dear Mr De Ville,
We refer to your access to documents request registered on 4/06/2020 under
the above mentioned reference number.
Your application is currently being handled. However, the nature of your
application requires us to perform a considerable number of searches in
our database in order to gather all necessary documents. Therefore we will
not be in a position to complete the handling of your application within
the time limit of 15 working days, which expires today.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to documents. The new time limit expires on 16/07/2020.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG TRADE
Please find attached document Ares(2020)4205833 from WEYAND Sabine (TRADE) dated 11/08/2020.
Veuillez trouver ci-joint le document Ares(2020)4205833 de WEYAND Sabine (TRADE) daté du 11/08/2020.