To: Secretariat General of the European Commission,
From: Belen Balanya, Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels.
25 October 2023 RE: DG Clima not registering FoI request related to Green Hydrogen

Dear sirs,

On 8 July 2023 I submitted an access to documents request to DG Clima (through the Ask the EU site), you can see all history here: https://www.asktheeu.org/r/b2199376-2d67... and I also copy it below. DG Clima never acknowledged or registered the request, and on 15 September I submitted a confirmatory application.

I have previously submitted requests to DG Clima, but all the ones sent since July have encountered the same problem.

In conformity with Article 7(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (hereafter “the Regulation”), I had submitted a confirmatory application regarding the Commission's implied refusal to provide the information I requested on 8 July 2023,

I hope you can help to disclose the requested information in the shortest time possible.

Kind regards,
Belén Balanyá

Original request:

Referring to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to EU documents and to the 'Aarhus Regulation', I would herewith like to ask for access to the following:

1. A list of the meetings/ discussions (including those held face to face, online, by telephone etc) that have taken place since 1 December 2022 between Commissioner Timmermans, his cabinet and/or officials from DG Clima on one hand and representatives from Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, the African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP), the Hydrogen Council, Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2), Shell, Total, Equinor, BP, Eni, FTI Consulting and/or Baker McKenzie, on the other, in which the issue of green hydrogen was discussed (including Hydrogen Partnerships with third countries).

2. Any records, minutes or notes of these meetings/discussions.

3. Any briefings prepared for these meetings.

4. All correspondence exchanged since 1 December 2022 (including SMS & any other type of messages processed through phone apps - eg., WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram etc, recorded voice messages, emails, letters and attached documents) between Commissioner Timmermans, his cabinet and/or DG Clima director general and representatives of companies and/or industry associations Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, the African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP), Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2), Shell, Total, Equinor, BP, Eni, Hydrogen Council, FTI Consulting and/or Baker McKenzie, (including lobby consultancies and law firms working for them).
In the interests of good administration, Corporate Observatory Europe requests that the response clearly identifies the documents held by the Commission in relation to each of these categories and clearly indicates to which category the disclosed documents relate.
To the extent possible, our preference is to receive documents in electronic format. Documents that cannot be sent in electronic format should be sent to Corporate Europe Observatory, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels – to the attention of Belén Balanyá. Should you transmit documents to us by regular post, we kindly ask you to announce us in advance in this regard.

I would like to make clear I prefer you produce the documents on a rolling basis.
At no point should the Commission’s search for—or deliberations concerning—certain documents delay the production of others that the Commission has already retrieved and elected to produce.

Should my request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions referring to specific exemptions in the regulation. Also I expect the partial release of documents, in case of partial exemption according to article 4.6.
I reserve the right to appeal.

Please confirm having received this application. I look forward to your reply within 15 business days, according to the regulation.

Thank you for your assistance.

Belen Balanya
Corporate Europe Observatory

***** Confirmatory application ****

Belen Balanya September 15, 2023
Delivered

Dear Climate Action,

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 'Green hydrogen 1dec 22- 8 july 23'.

In conformity with Article 7(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (hereafter “the Regulation”), I hereby submits a confirmatory application regarding the Commission's implied refusal to provide the information I requested on 8 July 2023, which was not even registered.

I accordingly urge you to disclose the requested information in the shortest time possible.

Kind regards,
Belén Balanyá

Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,

On 8 July 2023 I submitted an access to documents request to DG Clima (through the Ask the EU site), you can see all history here: https://www.asktheeu.org/r/b2199376-2d67... and I also copy it below. DG Clima never acknowledged or registered the request, and on 15 September I submitted a confirmatory application.

I have previously submitted requests to DG Clima, but all the ones sent since July have encountered the same problem.

In conformity with Article 7(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (hereafter “the Regulation”), I had submitted a confirmatory application regarding the Commission's implied refusal to provide the information I requested on 8 July 2023.

Only messages from DG Clima were responses to all requests on 3 November 2023 saying due to an unexpected workload they were having trouble to answer on time and they would do so asap.
As far as I can see the confirmatory application I put has not been dealt with, and I'm requesting it again.

I trust you can help to disclose the requested information in the shortest time possible.

Kind regards,
Belén Balanyá

Original request:

Referring to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to EU documents and to the 'Aarhus Regulation', I would herewith like to ask for access to the following:

1. A list of the meetings/ discussions (including those held face to face, online, by telephone etc) that have taken place since 1 December 2022 between Commissioner Timmermans, his cabinet and/or officials from DG Clima on one hand and representatives from Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, the African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP), the Hydrogen Council, Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2), Shell, Total, Equinor, BP, Eni, FTI Consulting and/or Baker McKenzie, on the other, in which the issue of green hydrogen was discussed (including Hydrogen Partnerships with third countries).

2. Any records, minutes or notes of these meetings/discussions.

3. Any briefings prepared for these meetings.

4. All correspondence exchanged since 1 December 2022 (including SMS & any other type of messages processed through phone apps - eg., WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram etc, recorded voice messages, emails, letters and attached documents) between Commissioner Timmermans, his cabinet and/or DG Clima director general and representatives of companies and/or industry associations Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, the African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP), Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2), Shell, Total, Equinor, BP, Eni, Hydrogen Council, FTI Consulting and/or Baker McKenzie, (including lobby consultancies and law firms working for them).
In the interests of good administration, Corporate Observatory Europe requests that the response clearly identifies the documents held by the Commission in relation to each of these categories and clearly indicates to which category the disclosed documents relate.
To the extent possible, our preference is to receive documents in electronic format. Documents that cannot be sent in electronic format should be sent to Corporate Europe Observatory, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, 1050 Brussels – to the attention of Belén Balanyá. Should you transmit documents to us by regular post, we kindly ask you to announce us in advance in this regard.

I would like to make clear I prefer you produce the documents on a rolling basis.
At no point should the Commission’s search for—or deliberations concerning—certain documents delay the production of others that the Commission has already retrieved and elected to produce.

Should my request be denied wholly or partially, please explain the denial or all deletions referring to specific exemptions in the regulation. Also I expect the partial release of documents, in case of partial exemption according to article 4.6.
I reserve the right to appeal.

Please confirm having received this application. I look forward to your reply within 15 business days, according to the regulation.

Thank you for your assistance.

Belen Balanya
Corporate Europe Observatory

***** Confirmatory application ****

Belen Balanya September 15, 2023
Delivered

Dear Climate Action,

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 'Green hydrogen 1dec 22- 8 july 23'.

In conformity with Article 7(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (hereafter “the Regulation”), I hereby submits a confirmatory application regarding the Commission's implied refusal to provide the information I requested on 8 July 2023, which was not even registered.

I accordingly urge you to disclose the requested information in the shortest time possible.

Kind regards,
Belén Balanyá

Dear [email address],

Thanks for your message. There's actually few missing words in the last paragraph, my apologies.
It should read

1. A list of the meetings/ discussions (including those held face to face, online, by telephone etc) that have taken place since 1 December 2022 between Commissioner Timmermans, his cabinet and/or officials from DG Clima on one hand and representatives from Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, the African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP), the Hydrogen Council, Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2), Shell, Total, Equinor, BP, Eni, FTI Consulting and/or Baker McKenzie, on the other, in which the issue of green hydrogen was discussed (including Hydrogen Partnerships with third countries).

2. Any records, minutes or notes of these meetings/discussions.

3. Any briefings prepared for these meetings.

4. All correspondence exchanged since 1 December 2022 (including SMS & any other type of messages processed through phone apps - eg., WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram etc, recorded voice messages, emails, letters and attached documents) between Commissioner Timmermans, his cabinet and/or DG Clima director general and representatives of companies and/or industry associations Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance, Hydrogen Europe, the African Hydrogen Partnership Trade Association (AHP), Green Hydrogen Organisation (GH2), Shell, Total, Equinor, BP, Eni, Hydrogen Council, FTI Consulting and/or Baker McKenzie, (including lobby consultancies and law firms working for them) in which the issue of green hydrogen was discussed (including Hydrogen Partnerships with third countries).

Yours sincerely,

Belen Balanya