Lobby meetings on the Cloud and AI Development Act
Dear DG Connect,
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:
- All documents - including but not limited to e-mails, reports, minutes, etc. - related to meetings on the 'Cloud and AI Development Act’ between unit Connect E.2 at DG Connect and external stakeholders (including companies, think tanks, consultancy firms, trade and industry associations, etc.).
- all correspondence - including attachments - between unit Connect E.2 at DG Connect and external stakeholders (including companies, think tanks, consultancy firms, trade and industry associations, etc.) on the 'Cloud and AI Development Act'.
The request covers the period starting from 01/01/2025.
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken
On behalf of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Rue d'Edimbourgh 26
1050 Brussels
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
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1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 16/03/2026 and registered on 16/03/2026 under the case number
2026/1506.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 09/04/2026. We will let you know
if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working days.
To find more information on how we process your personal data, please see
[1]the privacy statement.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
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1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Mr Vranken,
Please find attached a message concerning your requests for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case numbers 2026/1506 and
2026/1507.
Yours sincerely,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG CONNECT – ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Rue de la Loi, 51
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Dear Mr Vranken,
Please find attached a message concerning your requests for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case numbers 2026/1506 and
2026/1507.
Yours sincerely,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG CONNECT – ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Rue de la Loi, 51
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Dear DG Connect,
Many thanks for your response, and for proposing a fair solution.
In order to enable me to limit the scope of the request more effectively, I would kindly request the list of the 124 identified meetings. This is in line with the Campbell judgment (para. 44), which imposes a general obligation on EU institutions to provide requesters with a list of identified documents.
While I am open to narrowing the scope of the request based on the list of identified meetings, I would contest the maximum limit of ten meetings.
I would like to point out that the Court of Justice of the EU has ruled that limiting the level of access based on an unreasonable administrative burden, should only occur in exceptional cases, and that exceptions to the principle of access to documents must be interpreted strictly. See paras 101-113 https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/d...
“It is not, in principle, appropriate that account should be taken of the amount of work entailed by the exercise of the applicant’s right of access and its interest in order to vary the scope of that right.”
The Court of Justice further clarifies that the need to undertake an examination of very numerous documents does not, on its own, provide any indication of the amount of work entailed. A derogation to examine the documents is only permissible where this proves to be particularly heavy. It is up to the institution involved to prove that a specific task is unreasonable.
Lastly, I would like to highlight that requests EASE 2026/1506 and EASE 2026/1507 for access to documents differ in scope, and should therefore not be considered as cumulatively adding to the administrative burden.
For these reasons, limiting the scope of the request to a maximum of 10 meetings seems an arbitrary and unreasonable approach.
Thank you in advance for sending me the list of identified meetings.
Kind regards,
Bram Vranken
Dear Mr Vranken,
We refer to your requests for access to documents, registered under the
reference numbers 2026/1506 and 2026/1507.
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 today.
An extended time limit is needed as different services need to be
consulted.
Therefore we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 regarding public
access to documents. The new time limit expires on 30 April 2026.
We apologise for this delay and any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
Dear Mr Vranken,
We refer to your requests for access to documents, registered under the
reference numbers 2026/1506 and 2026/1507.
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 today.
An extended time limit is needed as different services need to be
consulted.
Therefore we have to extend the time limit with 15 working days in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 regarding public
access to documents. The new time limit expires on 30 April 2026.
We apologise for this delay and any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
I am writing to you regarding the access to documents request with case number 2026/1506.
On 1 April, I responded to your request for a fair solution, asking for a list of the identified documents in line with the Campbell judgment. I have not yet received a response, even though the deadline is 30 April. Could you please update me on the status of the request and let me know when I can expect to receive the list of identified documents?
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Mr Vranken,
We refer to your requests for access to documents, registered under the
abovementioned reference numbers.
Your applications are currently being handled. However, we have not been
in a position to complete the handling of your applications within the
time limit, which expires today.
Please be assured that the reply is about to come.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG CONNECT – ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Rue de la Loi, 51
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
The access to documents request with case number 2026/1506 is now long overdue. Despite requests to receive a list of identified documents in order to reach a fair solution, no such response has been forthcoming.
I hope to receive an answer by the end of this week. If this is not the case, I will have to file a confirmatory application.
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Lobby meetings on the Cloud and AI Development Act' with case number 2026/1506
The deadline to respond to this request is long overdue (filed on 16 March).
On 27 March, DG Connect proposed a fair solution as a large amount of documents were identified. On 1 April, in order to narrow down the request, we asked DG Connect for a list of the identified documents as confirmed by the Campbell vs (para. 44) - https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/d....
The EU Ombudsman has stressed that providing a list of identified documents is a matter of good administration as "individuals may use such lists to narrow down their requests for review". Furthermore, the Ombudsman stresses that "providing requesters with the list should not entail an additional administrative burden" as the Commission has already identified the documents falling within its scope when processing an access request (See case 1129/2023/OAM).
Up to today, and despite several reminders, we have not received a response to our request to receive the list of identified documents causing a long delay in the handling of the request. I therefore request a confirmatory application.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/request/lobby_m...
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2026/1506, sent on 22/05/2026 and registered on 22/05/2026.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 15/06/2026. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
Hello,
We are writing concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case [1]2026/1506, registered on 22/05/2026.
As you did not receive a reply to your initial request registered on
16/03/2026, you submitted a confirmatory request.
In the meantime, the initial reply in question was sent to you on
13/05/2026.
Against this background, the Secretariat-General has closed your
confirmatory request.
You can submit a new_rec confirmatory request for this case in accordance
with Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 if you wish to ask for a
review of the initial reply.
Kind regards,
References
Visible links
1. file:///tmp/
Hello,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2026/1506.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
European Commission
DG CONNECT — ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Rue de la Loi, 51
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Hello,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2026/1506.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
European Commission
DG CONNECT — ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
Rue de la Loi, 51
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Dear applicant,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2026/1506.
Kind regards,
Secretariat-General - Access to documents
European Commission
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Lobby meetings on the Cloud and AI Development Act'.
The response on 27/05 by DG Connect is unacceptable and disregards any due process.
On 27 March, DG Connect proposed a fair solution as a large amount of documents were identified. On 1 April, in order to narrow down the request, we asked DG Connect for a list of the identified documents as confirmed by the Campbell vs European Commission judgement (para. 44) - https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/d...
The EU Ombudsman has stressed that providing a list of identified documents is a matter of good administration as "individuals may use such lists to narrow down their requests for review". Furthermore, the Ombudsman stresses that "providing requesters with the list should not entail an additional administrative burden" as the Commission has already identified the documents falling within its scope when processing an access request (See case 1129/2023/OAM).
After waiting almost for two months for a response, and despite several reminders, we filed a confirmatory application on 22/05 when no such answer was forthcoming.
On 27/05, DG Connect did respond by saying it had unilaterally restricted the scope of the applications and claimed that we had "refused to limit the scope of [our] requests".
Firstly, this is simply untrue. We tried to engage in a genuine dialogue with DG Connect to limit the scope of the application based on a list of identified meetings, as clarified above. However, DG Connect did not respond to this request at all, instead unilaterally deciding which documents to disclose.
Second, DG Connect cannot just merge two separate access to documents requests (EASE 2026/1506 and EASE 2026/1507) and claim that together they constitute too much of an administrative burden. The first request deals with specific meetings with high-level EU officials, that are already partly in the public domain. The second request covers meetings with a specific unit in DG Connect that has been involved in drafting the Cloud and AI Development Act. These two requests have a clearly different scope, and should be considered as two separate requests.
Lastly, limiting the response to ten meetings is highly arbitrary. Setting a limit of 10 meetings would severely restrict the fundamental right to access documents in an unreasonable way.
Even though all of these points have already been raised with DG Connect, no response has been forthcoming.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/request/lobby_m...
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2026/1506, sent on 28/05/2026 and registered on 28/05/2026.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 18/06/2026. We will let
you know if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working
days.
Yours faithfully,
Secretariat-General - Access to Documents
European Commission
Dear Mr Vranken,
We are writing concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case 2026/1506 registered on 28/05/2026.
We are currently working on your confirmatory request. However, we have
not yet been able to gather all the elements necessary to carry out a full
analysis of your request. We will not be able to send you the reply within
the prescribed time limit expiring on 18/06/2026.
Please note that the necessary internal consultations are still ongoing in
view of the arguments set out in your confirmatory application and the
amount of documents requested.
Therefore, in line with Article 8(2) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 we
need to extend this time limit by 15 additional working days. The new time
limit expires on 09/07/2026.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
Access to Documents Team
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Unit A.2 (Document Management & Access to Documents)
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
The deadline to handle the confirmatory application expired yesterday.
Considering that the request is already long overdue, we expect to receive a response by 16/07/26.
Yours faithfully,
Bram Vranken
Your message has been received by the Transparency Unit of the
Secretariat-General of the European Commission.
Requests for public access to documents are treated on the basis of
[1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.
The Secretariat-General will reply to your request within 15 working days
upon registration of your request and will duly inform you of the
registration of the request (or of any additional information to be
provided in view of its registration and/or treatment).
L’unité «Transparence» du secrétariat général de la Commission européenne
a bien reçu votre message.
Les demandes d’accès du public aux documents sont traitées sur la base du
[2]règlement (CE) n° 1049/2001 du 30 mai 2001 relatif à l’accès du public
aux documents du Parlement européen, du Conseil et de la Commission.
Le secrétariat général répondra à votre demande dans un délai de 15 jours
ouvrables à compter de la date d’enregistrement de votre demande, et vous
informera de cet enregistrement (ou vous indiquera toute information
supplémentaire à fournir en vue de l'enregistrement et/ou du traitement de
votre demande).
Ihre Nachricht ist beim Referat „Transparenz“ des Generalsekretariats der
Europäischen Kommission eingegangen.
Anträge auf Zugang zu Dokumenten werden auf der Grundlage der
[3]Verordnung (EG) Nr. 1049/2001 vom 30. Mai 2001 über den Zugang der
Öffentlichkeit zu Dokumenten des Europäischen Parlaments, des Rates und
der Kommission behandelt.
Das Generalsekretariat beantwortet Ihre Anfrage innerhalb von
15 Arbeitstagen nach deren Registrierung und wird Sie über die
Registrierung Ihres Antrags (oder die Notwendigkeit weiterer Informationen
im Hinblick auf dessen Registrierung und/oder Bearbeitung) unterrichten.
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Mr Vranken,
Thank you for your email.
We are writing to you concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case 2026/1506, registered on 28/05/2026.
On 18/06/2026, we extended the time-limit for replying to your
confirmatory request to 09/07/2026.
Unfortunately, we were not able to send you the reply within this extended
time limit. We would like to confirm that the necessary internal
consultations are still ongoing in view of the arguments set out in your
confirmatory application and the amount of documents requested.
However, we assure you that we are doing our best to send a reply to your
confirmatory request as soon as possible.
We regret this additional delay and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
Access to Documents Team
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Unit A.2 (Document Management & Access to Documents)