Omnibus 1 - Simplification Roundtables
Dear Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001 and the additional legal regime of the Aarhus Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information, I am requesting documents which contain the following information, regarding the Omnibus I (amending the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive CSRD, the Corporate Due Diligence Directive CDDD, and the Taxonomy Regulation) Simplification Roundtable of 5-6 February 2025 and of any other Roundtables not publicly known of:
- The documents recording the agenda and minutes or records of the roundtables, notably including the points raised by both all the stakeholders present and by the Commission itself.
- Any additional information available on the discussions of the roundtables.
I wish to remind that the right to information under this request is more ample than the general right of access to documents, since it regards information related to environmental and climate legislation - where requesters have a more extensive right to information, which is not limited only to “documents”.
Yours faithfully,
Francesco S. Artibani
Transparency International EU
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are writing to you concerning your request for access to documents sent
on 10/02/2026 and registered on 11/02/2026 under case number 2026/0941.
Since you have not indicated your postal address, we are not able to start
handling your request. The 15 working days to reply to your request will
start running only when you send us your postal address.
You can send your postal address by replying to this e-mail. If we do not
receive your reply we may close this case.
Please note that you can submit a request for access to Commission
documents via the portal [1]'Request a Commission document', which does
not require you to indicate your postal address.
Why do we need your personal postal address?
Since 1 April 2014, the submission of a postal address became a mandatory
feature when submitting an application for access to Commission documents
via an e-mail. We would like to explain why we need your postal address in
order to register and handle your application for access to documents when
submitted via e-mail:
• Firstly, to obtain legal certainty as regards the date you received
the European Commission reply to your application for public access to
documents. Article 297 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU) states that 'decisions which specify to whom
they are addressed, shall be notified to those to whom they are
addressed and shall take effect upon such notification.' In line with
this provision, if the Commission does not grant full access to the
requested documents, it notifies the reply to the applicant via
registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt or via delivery
service. This requires an indication of a valid postal address by the
applicant;
• Secondly, to apply correctly the [2]Data Protection Regulation (EU)
2018/1725. Knowing whether the applicant is an EU resident (or not) is
necessary for deciding which conditions shall apply for the
transmissions of personal data to applicants for access to documents.
These conditions are not the same for recipients established in the
Union and for recipients in third countries. As the vast majority of
the documents requested contain personal data, the Commission cannot
ensure the correct application of the data protection rules in the
absence of a postal address;
• Thirdly, to apply correctly [3]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. Article
4(1)(b) of that Regulation refers to the protection of the privacy and
integrity of the individual and has to be applied in line with the
Data Protection Regulation;
• Fourthly, to protect the interest of other citizens and safeguard the
principle of good administration. The Commission has to treat all
citizens equally by ensuring that the legal framework for public
access to documents is respected. For example, it has to verify
whether Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 is being evaded
by introducing several requests under different identities. Indeed, in
its Ryanair judgment ([4]EU:T:2010:511), the General Court confirmed
that Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 cannot be evaded by
splitting an application into several, seemingly separate, parts. In
addition, the Commission has to make sure that the legal framework is
respected and the right of access to documents is not abused by making
requests under an invented identity.
The considerations above show that the request for and the consequent
processing of the applicant's postal address is not only appropriate, but
also strictly necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the
public interest within the meaning of Article 5(1)(a) of Data Protection
Regulation, namely providing a smooth and effective access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs - Access to
Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://www.ec.europa.eu/transparency/do...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
4. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs - Access to Documents,
At transparency International EU, we note with concern that the Commission is asking a postal address for access to document requests, a practise the European Ombudsman has previously identified as maladministration (Decision 682/2014/JF). This is not required by other EU institutions, including the European Parliament, and it is not in line with the spirit of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Nevertheless, in order to ensure that our request is processed appropriately and within the deadlines established under Regulation 1049/2001, we provide the following postal address:
- Rue du Commerce 31, 1000 Brussels.
We trust that the Commission will handle this request in line with good practice.
Yours faithfully,
Transparency International EU
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 10/02/2026 and registered on 11/02/2026 under the case number
2026/0941.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 04/03/2026. 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,
Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs - Access to
Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Sir,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2026/0941.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
The Secretariat-General
SG.C2
Dear Secretariat-General SG.C2,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
We are filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Omnibus 1 - Simplification Roundtables'.
We acknowledge receipt of your decision of February 23, 2026 in relation to our request for access to documents of February 10, 2026 (titled Omnibus 1 - Simplification Roundtables, your case number 2026/0941).
We requested access for documents and information regarding:
1. Simplification Roundtable of 5-6 February 2025.
2. Of any other Roundtables not publicly known of.
Specifically, we requested:
A. The documents recording the agenda and minutes or records of the roundtables, notably including the points raised by both all the stakeholders present and by the Commission itself.
B. Any additional information available on the discussions of the roundtables.
In your response you have identified three documents in scope of our request: 1. Agendas of the Simplification roundtable organised on 5-6 February 2025 2. Minutes of the event organised on 6 February 2025.
We find this unsatisfactory. While you responded to our request you did so only in part and did not abide with the principle of good administration. Specifically:
1. The agenda for the Simplification Roundtable of 6 February you shared is redacted without this being indicated, nor justified under art. 4 of Regulation 1049/2001. The original version of the document (which was published in the media in that period, see: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmcgowan/... https://media.licdn.com/dms/document/med...) lists on pages 2 and 3 the participating stakeholders represented (i.e., via stakeholder organization legal name, e.g., Transparency International EU).
2. You have not provided information for the, at least 2, other Omnibus Roundtables which seem to have taken place and have not provided any justification for such choice, as required for by art. 4 of Regulation 1049/2001.
Further, we would like to remind that (as highlighted by your own website) under the additional legal regime of the Aarhus Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information, we have a right to any ‘information available’. The documents provided clearly do not satisfy such a requirement, and again the statement of reason on why such documents were not provided, as required by art. 4 of the Aarhus Directive 2003/4/EC, is totally lacking.
Thus, we herewith submit a confirmatory application asking you to reconsider your position and to release all the documents concerned without redactions in compliance with the relevant EU law.
Yours sincerely,
Transparency International EU
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/request/omnibus...
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2026/0941, sent on 06/03/2026 and registered on 09/03/2026.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 30/03/2026. 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