Dear Madam, Sir,

On 30 January 2025 Poland has submitted a modified recovery and resilience plan (RRP). On 27 May the Commission has endorsed the modified plan, by publishing a proposal for a Council Implementing Decision (2025/0147 (NLE)).

One of the amended mesaures is A2.7.1 Investment – Security and Defence Fund.

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting all documents related to the Commission's assessment of the proposal by the Polish government to add measure A2.7.1 to its plan.

This request is including but not limited to minutes, (hand-written) notes, audio recordings, (draft) reports, verbatim reports, operational conclusions, lines to take, briefings, papers, e-mails, text or chat messages, letters, interservice consultations, and presentations.

This request covers both any informal exchanges between Poland and the European Commission before the formal submission of the amended RRP, and the official period of assessment between submission (30 January 2025) and publication of the proposal (27 May 2025).

If the Commission is considering to invoke the exception clause that publication would undermine the protection of “[…] the financial, monetary or economic policy” of the EU or of specific Member States, I would like remind you of the European Ombudsman decision, which said the "risk of those policies [i.e. the financial, monetary or economic policy of the Union or a Member State] being undermined must not, however, be merely hypothetical and a refusal to disclose documents must be appropriately reasoned".

I also would like to point out on 1 December 2022, the Ombudsman said: "The Ombudsman has urged the Commission to treat access to document requests concerning EU recovery funds with greater consistency and to better explain its reasoning if it decides not release the asked-for information. [..] She asked the Commission to take this into account when dealing with future access requests related to the recovery funds, noting the importance of the public being able to follow how the funds are being used and whether promised milestones have been met."

If the Commission is considering to invoke an exception from article 4.2 or 4.3, please keep in mind there is an overriding public interest in disclosure. That public interest is to ensure that no double funding with tax-payer money has taken place.

If the Commission is considering to invoke article 4.1a third indent, please consider whether documents can be partially released.

If the Commission is considering to deny access to (parts) of the document(s), I would request that the Commission at least provide a list of documents that match my request.

Only digital copies are required, please consider the environment by not sending me any physical mail.

I am of course available to clarify my request further if needed.

Sincerely
Peter Teffer

Follow the Money
Overtoom 197
1054HT Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Dear Madam, Sir,

I acknowledge receipt of your reply to case number 2025/3480.

All the best,
Peter Teffer