Request for documents on research funding applications or contacts related to harm reduction projects involving tobacco companies or affiliated platforms
Dear Research and Innovation,
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:
I request access to all documents (including grant applications, correspondence, evaluation reports, and internal notes) from 1 January 2021 to the present, concerning:
– Applications for EU research funding (Horizon Europe or other programmes) involving tobacco companies, their subsidiaries, or platforms such as Omni, related to harm reduction, public health, or innovation in nicotine products.
– Internal assessments, eligibility checks, or decisions regarding the participation of tobacco companies or affiliated entities in EU-funded research projects.
– Contacts or correspondence with tobacco industry representatives regarding the framing of research priorities in the field of health, harm reduction, or innovation.
I would like the search to cover the period from 1 January 2021 to the present.
If parts of the requested documents are covered by exceptions under Regulation 1049/2001, I kindly ask for partial access to be granted to the remaining parts. I am also open to receiving the documents in electronic format.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Yours faithfully,
Irene van den Berg
Linker Rottekade 292, unit 1.7
3034 CV Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 29/09/2025 and registered on 30/09/2025 under the case number
2025/4999.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 21/10/2025. 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 Research and Innovation - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Ms. Van der Berg,
We are writing concerning your request registered under reference number
in subject.
Please note that the documents covered by the first and second point of
your request fall under the responsiblity of the Excecutive Agency HADEA
and not DG Research and Innovation.
While we are searching in our DG for the documents described in the third
point of your request, for the reminaing part of it, we suggest you to
contact the Agency directly, which will handle your request under the same
conditions of Regulation 1049/2001. You can contact them at
[email address].
Kind regards,
R&I Access to documents
Dear Sir/Madam,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 30/09/2025 under case number EASE 2025/4999.
We are not able to identify any document based on the description given in
your request.
In line with Article 6(2) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to documents, we invite you to send us more detailed
information on the documents you request, such as references, dates or
periods during which the documents would have been drawn up, persons or
bodies who drafted the documents etc. and specify which entities you are
referring to in your request.
The 15 working days to reply to your request will start running only when
you reply to this message. If you do not reply within 7 working days, we
will close this case in line with our detailed rules for the application
of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Kind regards,
R&I Access to documents
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Madam,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 30/09/2025 under case number EASE 2025/4999.
On 17/10/2025 we asked you to clarify the scope of your request since it
was not clear.
Since you have not replied to our clarification request, we could not
start handling it and we have closed this case.
Kind regards,
R&I Access to documents
Dear Sir or Madam,
Thank you for your previous correspondence regarding my access to documents request (EASE 2025/4999).
My apologies for not replying within the deadline set in your clarification letter of 17 October 2025. I would nevertheless like to pursue the request and kindly ask that it be reopened.
To clarify the scope of my application:
– Please focus on correspondence, meeting notes, and internal briefings between DG Research & Innovation and tobacco companies or their representatives (including BAT, PMI, JTI, Imperial Brands) or industry-funded platforms such as Omni, concerning research priorities or innovation in harm reduction or nicotine-related products.
– The time frame remains 1 January 2021 to the present.
– I am happy to receive partial access and documents in electronic format.
I understand that some of the material may fall under the remit of HADEA, as you indicated earlier. Please feel free to transfer or forward the relevant part of the request to the Agency under the same conditions of Regulation 1049/2001.
Thank you very much for your understanding, and I would appreciate confirmation that my request can be reopened under the same reference number.
Kind regards,
Irene van den Berg
Dear Ms. Van der Berg,
Thank you very much for your clarification. Apologies, it fell in our SPAM folder, which may happen when requests are sent via the portal AskTheEU.
We cannot reopen the old one, but we will immediately register your message below as a new request - using the postal address you provided in your past one - to handle it on the basis of the information provided.
Kind regards,
RTD Access to documents
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 04/11/2025 and registered on 05/11/2025 under the case number
2025/5733.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 26/11/2025. 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 Research and Innovation - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Ms Van der Berg,
We refer to your message below, in which you (a)request access to
documents held by DG R&I, but you also (b)refer to documents that might
fall under the remit of the Agency HADEA.
Concerning point a), as mentioned, we have proceeded to register it on 5
November under n° 2025/5733, and we are working on it.
As for point b), we understand you refer to part of your previous request
n° 2025/4999, closed for lack of clarification, in which you requested
access also to:
• Applications for EU research funding (Horizon Europe or other
programmes) involving tobacco companies, their subsidiaries, or
platforms such as Omni, related to harm reduction, public health, or
innovation in nicotine products.
• Internal assessments, eligibility checks, or decisions regarding the
participation of tobacco companies or affiliated entities in EU-funded
research projects.
If this is the case, as explained in our message of 9 October
(Ares(2025)8573928) in reply to it, HADEA is indeed the EU authority that
you should contact for these two points. If you haven’t done so in the
meantime, we invite you to do so at
[1][email address].
As for your new, clarified request below, registered under n° 2025/5733,
we confirm that, as it concerns only documents held by DG R&I, it will be
handled and replied to by this DG.
Kind regards,
R&I Access to documents
Dear Madam,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered under case number EASE 2025/5733.
We are currently working on your request. However, as multiple DG services
had to be consulted, we have not been able to finalize our reply on time
to send it to you by today, the prescribed time limit of 15 working days.
Therefore, in line with Article 7(3) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
we need to extend this time limit by 15 additional working days.
The new time limit expires on 17 December, but we are doing our best to
send it to you before that.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
R&I Access to documents
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
