Request for documents on trade arguments and international negotiations related to harm reduction products
Dear Trade,
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 correspondence, meeting notes, internal assessments, and draft position papers) from 1 January 2021 to the present, concerning:
– Contacts with tobacco companies or their representatives regarding the trade or export of e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, or nicotine pouches.
– Use of trade or competitiveness arguments to influence EU positions on harm reduction products in the context of international negotiations or WTO discussions.
– Communications with Member States linking tobacco harm reduction products to economic or trade policy.
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
2025/5006.
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 Trade and Economic Security - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Ms Van den Berg,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for public access
to Commission documents registered under the above case number EASE
2025/5006.
Kind regards,
DG TRADE Public Access to Documents Team
Dear Trade,
Thank you very much for your message and for the detailed explanation regarding the scope and workload associated with my request.
My sincere apologies for not replying within the five-day period mentioned in your letter. I still wish to pursue the request and would like to cooperate in finding a fair solution under Article 6(3) of Regulation 1049/2001.
To facilitate processing, I am happy to narrow down the scope of my application as follows:
– Please limit the search to the period 1 January 2023 to the present.
– Please focus on correspondence (including emails), meeting minutes and briefings relating to contacts with tobacco companies (BAT, PMI, JTI, Imperial Brands) or their EU-level associations (Tobacco Europe, IEVA) concerning trade, export or market access issues for e-cigarettes, heated tobacco or nicotine pouches.
– I am particularly interested in documents where trade or competitiveness arguments were discussed in the context of WTO or international trade policy.
If the number of documents still exceeds a manageable level, I would appreciate it if you could select up to 25–30 representative documents covering these topics, as suggested in your letter.
I confirm that I am happy to receive the documents in electronic format and to accept partial access where necessary.
Thank you for your understanding and assistance.
Yours faithfully,
Irene van den Berg
Dear Ms Van den Berg,
We refer to your email application for public access to documents of 29
September 2025, registered on 30 September 2025 under the EASE reference
number 2025/5006.
Your application is currently being handled and the reply to it should be
finalised very soon.
However, we will not be in a position to complete the handling of your
application within the time limit of 15 working days, which expires on 21
October 2025, i.e. today.
An extended time limit is needed as the application concerns documents
held by different Services, which must be consulted.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit by 15 working days in
accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding
public access to documents.
The new time limit expires on 11 November 2025.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
DG TRADE Access to Documents TeamEuropean Commission
Directorate General for Trade
Unit R2 – Single Entry Point for implementation, Outreach and
Transparency, SMEs
CHAR
1049 Brussels
Belgium
Dear Trade,
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 'Request for documents on trade arguments and international negotiations related to harm reduction products'.
My request is long overdue. By law under all circumstances, the authority should have responded by now.
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/request/request...
Yours faithfully,
Irene van den Berg
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your confirmatory request for case
2025/5006, sent on 03/12/2025 and registered on 05/12/2025.
We will handle your confirmatory request within 15 working days as of the
date of registration. The time-limit expires on 07/01/2026. 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
Dear applicant,
We are writing concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case 2025/5006 registered on 5 December 2025.
We are currently working on your confirmatory request. However, we have
not yet been able to gather all the elements necessary to carry out a full
analysis of your request. We will not be able to send you the reply within
the prescribed time limit expiring on 7 January 2026 due to ongoing
internal consultations.
Therefore, in line with Article 8(2) 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 28 January 2026.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
Secretariat-General - Access to documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear applicant,
We are writing to you concerning your confirmatory request for access to
Commission documents for case 2025/5006, registered on 5 December 2025.
On 7 January 2026, we extended the time-limit for replying to your
confirmatory request to 28 January 2026.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to send you the reply within this
extended time limit due to ongoing internal consultations.
However, we assure you that we are doing our best to send a reply to your
confirmatory request as soon as possible.
We regret this additional delay and sincerely apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
Secretariat-General - Access to documents
European Commission