Meeting notes and correspondence with AstraZeneca and other pharma companies
Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,
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 reports (and other notes) from meetings of representatives of the European Commission, members of the Vaccines Procurement Steering Committee and members of the Joint Negotiation Team (JNT) with representatives of pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca and others) about Advance Purchase Agreements (APAs) and the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19.
- all correspondence (including emails and their attachments) between representatives of the European Commission, members of the Vaccines Procurement Steering Committee and members of the Joint Negotiation Team (JNT) and representatives of pharmaceutical companies (AstraZeneca and others) about Advance Purchase Agreements (APAs) and the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19.
- a list of all the above-mentioned documents (including dates, names of participants/senders/recipients and their affiliation, subject of meeting/correspondence).
There is a clear public interest in disclosure of these documents. The Lisbon Treaty oblige the EU institutions to work as openly and as closely as possible to citizens. There is clearly a lot at stake for EU citizens in the vaccine deal negotiations. Citizens have the right to know about these negotiations that are happening on their behalf, involving billions of euros of public money to be spent for the development of vaccines.
Please note that there is also a clear public interest in the release of the names of the members of the Joint Negotiation Team (JNT). The public has the right to know who was negotiating on the EU’s behalf. Knowing the names of the negotiators is a pre-condition for assessing potential conflicts of interest.
This request covers the period September 2020 until today (including meeting notes and correspondence from January 2021). It is a follow-up request to our previous request with reference number GESTDEM 2020/5436 (registered on 15/09/2020), currently the subject of an inquiry by the European Ombudsman.
Yours sincerely,
Olivier Hoedeman
on behalf of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Rue d'Edimbourg 26,
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel. +32 (0)2 893 0930
[1]Ares(2021)854336 - RE: access to documents request - Meeting notes and
correspondence with AstraZeneca and other pharma companies --- Ref.
Gestdem 2020/559
Sent by ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[SG request email]>. All responses have
to be sent to this email address.
Envoyé par ve_sg.accessdoc (SG) <[SG request email]>. Toutes les
réponses doivent être effectuées à cette adresse électronique.
Dear Sir,
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents,
which was registered on 1 February 2021 under reference number GESTDEM
2021/559.
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 22 February 2021. 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
Privacy statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Access to documents team (rc)
SG.C.1
Transparency
Dear Mr HOEDEMAN ,
We refer to your request dated 1 February 2021 in which you make a request
for access to documents, registered on the same date under the above
mentioned reference number.
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 on 22 February 2021.
An extended time limit is needed due to internal consultations and a
thorough analysis of your request.
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 15 March 2021.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
SANTE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
[1]cid:image001.gif@01D3FF48.374A49E0
European Commission
Health and Food Safety
References
Visible links