Meetings DG CNECT and big techs
Access Info Europe made this access to documents request to Communications Networks, Content and Technology
“Dear DG CNECT,
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:
Any documents related to lobby meetings between DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology and interest representatives from Amazon and Google from June 2025 to November 2025 that have not been proactively published. This includes: preparatory notes, internal notes, more extensive minutes of meetings, summary and follow-up reports, documents provided by the companies, all related correspondence including electronic exchanges.
Following concerns and allegations regarding the influence that these corporations may have had on the preparation of the Digital Omnibus, we consider that there is a specific public interest in disclosure to bring transparency to this regulatory process which has a significant impact on competition, digital rights and the European market.
Yours faithfully,
This request is submitted by Access Info Europe, a Spanish Association, operating on a not-for-profit basis, with registration number 587828.
Access Info Europe
Doña Juana I de Castilla,
60 Bajo B 28027 Madrid, Spain”
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,
Thank you for your initial request for access to documents.
Please note that in order to be able to register your request in our database, we will need your name and surname.
Yours faithfully,
Access to documents team - SG.A.2
Dear Madam/Sir,
Please note that this request is submitted by Access Info Europe, a Spanish Association, operating on a not-for-profit basis, with registration number 587828. The employee acting on its behalf is Beatriz Macho, Legal Officer. If you require the contact details of a legal representative, please let us know.
Kind regards
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 request for access to documents
sent on 02/07/2026 and registered on 02/07/2026 under the case number
2026/3360.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 24/07/2026. 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
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Sir or Madam,
We refer to your requests for access to documents registered under the
reference numbers 2026/3359 and 2026/3360.
Unfortunately, we are not able to send the reply to your applications
within the given time limit, which expires today.
You will receive the reply to your applications as soon as possible.
We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
Dear Sir or Madam,
We refer to your requests for access to documents registered under the
reference numbers 2026/3359 and 2026/3360.
Unfortunately, we are not able to send the reply to your applications
within the given time limit, which expires today.
You will receive the reply to your applications as soon as possible.
We apologize for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours faithfully,
DG CONNECT Access to Documents Team
Dear Communications Networks, Content and Technology,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
We refer to our application of 2 July 2026, registered under reference EASE 2026/3360, in which we requested all documents relating to lobby meetings held between DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology and interest representatives of Amazon and Google between June 2025 and November 2025 that have not been proactively published, including preparatory notes, internal notes, fuller minutes, summary and follow-up reports, documents provided by the companies, and all related correspondence.
The time limit for reply expired on 24 July 2026 and was extended to 14 August 2026. By letter of 14 August 2026, the Commission informed us that it was not able to send its reply within that time limit and that we would receive it "as soon as possible," without granting or refusing access and without setting any new date. To this day, no reply has reached us.
Since the institution has failed to reply within the prescribed time limit, we are entitled under Article 7(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 to make a confirmatory application, which we hereby do. We ask the Commission to reconsider its position and to grant full access to the documents identified above.
We would observe, first, that the extension permitted under Article 7(3) has already been used and that the extended deadline too has now passed without any decision. This is a plain failure to observe the deadlines set out in Article 7 and is difficult to reconcile with the right to good administration guaranteed by Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We would recall that, under Article 1 of the Regulation and the settled case-law of the Court of Justice, the widest possible public access is the general principle and any limitation must be construed strictly; administrative silence cannot take the place of a genuine reply. Also, the Court has made it clear that the timeframes cannot be varied by the parties (C-127/13 P Strack v Commission) and the EU Ombudsman has also considered that significant systemic delays and failure to comply with the timeframes amount to maladministration (Case OI/2/2022/OAM).
We would also emphasise the substantial and specific public interest in disclosure. As we explained at the outset, access to these documents is necessary to allow public scrutiny of the influence that these large technology companies may have had – including, amongst other things, through lobbying meetings – , in the preparation of the Digital Omnibus, and to bring transparency to a regulatory process with a significant impact on competition, digital rights and the European market. That concern is also confirmed by the inquiry opened on 8 July 2026 by the European Ombudsman into the transparency of the Commission's meetings with stakeholders in the context of its simplification agenda. In this context, a specific purpose in the public interest is thereby established that justifies access to certain personal data that may be contained in the documents. We therefore respectfully request that the relevant exception be carefully applied.
Should the Commission nonetheless intend to refuse access, in whole or in part, we would recall that any such refusal must be based on one of the exceptions exhaustively listed in Article 4 of the Regulation, must be specifically reasoned in relation to each document, and, where the relevant exception so requires, must be weighed against the overriding public interest set out above. The Commission must show that there is an actual and specific risk that is “reasonably foreseeable” and not hypothetical to the interests they intend to protect. A general or hypothetical reference to an exception would not suffice, and where only parts of a document are covered, partial access must be granted under Article 4(6). We would add that documents originating from Amazon and Google fall squarely within the scope of the Regulation and that the mere fact that a document was provided by a third party does not exempt it from disclosure.
We therefore ask the Commission to reconsider its position and to grant full access to the documents identified above.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/request/meeting...
Yours faithfully,
Access Info Europe
(Spanish Association, registration number 587828)
Doña Juana I de Castilla, 60 Bajo B, 28027 Madrid, Spain
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
2026/3360, sent on 28/08/2026 and registered on 28/08/2026.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 18/09/2026. 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,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2026/3360.
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 2026/3360.
Kind regards,
Secretariat-General - Access to documents
European Commission