EXLUSIVELY BY EMAIL
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Corporate Europe Observatory
Rijnstraat 8
2515 XP Den Haag
Attn. Ms Vicky Cann
Postbus 20061
Rue d'Edimbourg 26
2500 EB Den Haag
1050 Bruxelles
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/
ministeries/ministerie-van-
buitenlandse-zaken
Contactpersoon
xxx@xxxxxxx.xx
Datum
6 april 2022
Onze referentie
BZ-2021.96763
Betreft
Reaction on your Public Access Request
Dear Ms Cann,
In your email of 3 November 2021, you requested information on meetings of the
Dutch Permanent Representation to the European Union, invoking the Government
Information (Public Access) Act (Wet openbaarheid van bestuur; Wob).
The information you requested concerned the following:
‘
How many meetings have employees of the the Permanent Representation of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands to the European Union had with representatives of
companies, organisations, and other lobbyists, since 2 July 2020?
I would like to request a list of these meetings including who was present at the
meeting, the names of the organisations and lobbyists present, the date of the
meeting, and the subject matters discussed. ‘
The decision was postponed by four weeks on 1 December 2021.
Statutory framework
Your application falls within the scope of the Government Information (Public
Access) Act.
Decision
In response to your application, one document has been created, namely a list of
meetings of the Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to
the European Union with stakeholders. This list encompasses meetings in the period
from 2 July 2020 until 3 November 2021, the date of your request. I have decided
to grant your application and to disclose this document.
Despite the fact that the Government Information (Public Access) Act does not
provide for any obligation to produce information that is not already contained in
existing documents, regardless of the degree of effort that this would involve, I have
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BZ-2021.96763
decided to create a document in order to be able to substantively reply to your
application and in that way serve the public interest by disclosure of the requested
information.1
With regard to this document, it is relevant to mention that no distinction is made
between who took the initiative for the meeting; the Permanent Representation in
principle receives every stakeholder. Further it is relevant to mention, that the
document encompasses meetings that took place in the building of the Permanent
Representation, as well as meetings which have taken place through
videoconference.2
In the document you will find:
-
the date of a meeting,
-
the name of the stakeholder,
-
the topic discussed at the meeting and
-
the abbreviation of the department of the Permanent Representation of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands to the European Union that is responsible for
the topic discussed.
In the document you will not find the names of the persons who were present at
the meetings. I do not disclose this information in respect of personal privacy, on
the ground of section 10, subsection 2, opening words and (e) of the Government
Information (Public Access) Act.
Overall and according to my analysis the document shows the following numbers
and percentages:
Results (in numbers)
Results (in percentages)
Business
Business
266
30,37%
NGO
NGO
117
13,36%
Government
Government
391
44,63 %
Education/Think-thanks
Education/Think-thanks
86
9,82 %
Undefined
Undefined
17
1,94 %
Total
876
1
See the judgment of the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State
(ABRvS) of 5 June 2013, no 201204362/1/A3.
2 For events that have been organized by the Dutch Permanent Reperesentation, the list
contains information about the invitees to these events, not about the stakeholders actually
present. Furthermore, in light of the fact that -due to the pandemic- many meetings have
taken place through video-conferences in the period covered by this request for access to
documents, it has been decided to also retroactively include these meetings in the list.
However, due to staff changes no guarantee can be given that the list is complete in this
respect.
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Manner of disclosure
The document is digitally enclosed with this decision.
Publication
The disclosed document will be published on
www.rijksoverheid.nl, so that the
document can be accessed by everyone.
Yours sincerely,
For the minister of Foreign Affairs,
The deputy permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
to the European Union
[This letter was processed digitally and is therefore not signed.]
Michael Stibbe
Within six weeks after this decision is sent, a notice of objection may be lodged. The
notice of objection must be signed and dated and include the name and address of
the person submitting it, a description of the decision against which the objection is
being lodged and the grounds on which it is based. The notice of objection should
be addressed to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Legal Affairs Department, Postbus
20061, 2500 EB The Hague, The Netherlands.
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