Legal advice on a Belgian request to lift the immunity of OLAF director-general
Dear Secretariat General,
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:
Legal advice prepared in April, or June, or July 2015 by the European Commission's legal services and/or the legal services head, Luis Romero Requena, dealing with a request from Belgian authorities to lift the immunity of OLAF Director-General, Giovanni Kessler.
Yours faithfully,
James Panichi
POLITICO
Rue de la Loi 62
1040 Brussels, Belgium
Dear M. Panichi,
Thank you for your e-mail dated 08/03/2016. We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 08/03/2016 under reference number GestDem 2016/1143.
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 01/04/2016. 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 European Commission cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.
Yours faithfully,
Team Access to Documents
European Commission
Secretariat General
Unit B4 - Transparency
Dear Mr Pachini,
We refer to your above mentioned request for access to a legal advice.
(Your request is dated 08/03/2016 and has been registered the same day
under reference number GestDem 2016/1143).
Your application is currently being handled. However, we will not be in a
position to complete the handling of your application within the time
limit of 15 working days, which expires on 01/04/2016.
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 22/04/2016.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully
BRIGITTE ARNOLD-WOERTZ
Head of Sector InfoDoc
European Commission
Legal Service
Information and Documentation (InfoDoc)
BERL 1/90
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2 295 08 47
[1][email address]
Legal service website on Europa
[2]http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/legal_service/in...
Dear Secretariat General,
Thanks for your correspondence. We are talking about one document, so I am surprised it should require an additional 15 days to locate it. But that is your right.
Please take note of the correct spelling of my surname.
Yours faithfully,
James Panichi
Dear Secretariat General,
I am eagerly awaiting your response on this issue and believe the 15 additional day time-frame has lapsed. Please let me know when you have something for me.
Yours faithfully,
James Panichi
Dear Mr. Panichi
Thank you for your message. We understand your point.
However, I sent to you the "holding reply" email already on Thursday,
March 24, 2016 8:57 AM
to inform you that we would not be in a position to reply to you within
the first deadline (1/4/2016)
and that we had to extend the time limit with 15 working days in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
The new time limit expires on 22/04/2016.
Yours faithfully
Brigitte Arnold-Woertz
I apologize for the spelling mistake of your name in the email!
Dear Mr Panichi,
You will find enclosed the Legal Service's reply to your request for
access to documents. The original version of the reply will be sent to you
by certified mail.
Yours sincerely,
___________________________
Isabel ITURRITZA
Legal Officer
European Commission
Legal Service
BERL 1/107
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
+32 2-295 36 58
[1][email address]
References
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1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Secretariat General,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Secretariat General's handling of my FOI request 'Legal advice on a Belgian request to lift the immunity of OLAF director-general'.
I am arguing that the right for the public to know how such an important decision was made and to discount any suggestion that the decision was a political one without a legal foundation requires that these documents be released immediately.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/legal...
Yours faithfully,
James Panichi
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your email dated 21/04/2016.
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your confirmatory application for access to documents, which was registered on 21/04/2016 under reference number GestDem 2016/1143 – Ares(2016)1900875.
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 18/05/2016. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.
Yours faithfully,
Carlos Remis
SG.B.4
Transparence
Berl. 05/315
Dear Sir,
Please find attached a note regarding your confirmatory application for
access to documents (GestDem 2016/1143).
Kind regards,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (PS)
European Commission
Secretariat General
Unit SG.B4 – Transparency
Dear Mr Panichi,
Please find attached a note for your attention regarding your confirmatory
application GestDem 2016/1143.
Best regards,
ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS (NL)
[1]cid:image002.jpg@01CFC082.A6D14DD0
European Commission
Secretariat General
B4 – Transparency
References
Visible links
Dear Secretariat General,
This response sounds rather vague for something which is meant to be a clear process. You say that I will have a response "within a few weeks". Could we put a date on that, please? I cannot quite understand how you could require so much time to identify what would presumably be one document.
Yours faithfully,
James Panichi
James Panichi left an annotation ()
Please be advised of my new postal address. Thanks.
James Panichi
MLex
Rue de la Loi 67
1040 Brussels
Dear Mr Panichi,
Please find attached an advance information copy of the confirmatory
decision taken on your request for access to documents registered under
Gestdem number 2016/1143, adopted on 06/07/2016 in the above-mentioned
case.
Please note that the Secretariat General of the European Commission will
proceed with the formal notification of the decision in the coming days.
This advance copy is solely sent for your information and is not the
formal notification of the confirmatory decision.
Yours sincerely,
Carlos Remis
SG.B.4
Transparence
Berl. 05/315
James Panichi left an annotation ()
Thank you. For future reference, my surname is Panichi.
Regards, James Panichi