Request for minutes of meetings
Dear Climate Action,
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:
minutes/notes of the following meetings (and related lobbying materials, e.g. accompanying slides, briefings, reports etc):
Danone, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans European Green Deal 11/01/23 Video-call Transition towards sustainable food systems
Danone Frans Timmermans, Executive VicePresident European Green Deal 13/10/20 Brussels – video conference Sustainable food systems
Arla Foods amba, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans European Green Deal 25/11/21 video-call, Sustainable food systems
Cargill, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 13/12/22 Brussels, Sustainable food systems
Nestle S.A., Danone, Unilever, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 26/04/21 Brussels - video conference, Dairy denominations
Nestle S.A., Cargill, Arla Foods amba, Danone et al, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 02/12/22 Brussels, Workshop on the transition towards sustainable food systems
Nestle S.A., Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 08/01/21 Brussles - video conference, Discussion on sustainability commitments
Nestle S.A., Landbrug & Fødevarer - Danish Agriculture and Food Council, et al., Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 17/02/20 Brussels , Sustainable food systems
Royal FrieslandCampina, Unilever, Shell Companies, Royal DSM, et al., Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans 13/01/21 Brussels – videoconference, Roundtable on the Green Deal, organised by the Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition, with the participation of the Dutch Prime Minister and other Dutch Government Ministers.
Landbrug & Fødevarer - Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Lukas Visek and Stefanie Hiesinger, Cabinet members of Frans Timmermans 22/09/22 Brussels, Meeting with the President of the Danish Agriculture and Food Council (DAFC), Mr. Søren Søndergaard, representing Danish farmers and some of the EU’s major cooperatives in the dairy and pig-meat sectors, Arla Foods and Danish Crown
European Dairy Association (EDA), Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 04/03/20 Brussels, Sustainable food systems
UECBV, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 12/11/20 Brussels - video conference, Increasing sustainability in the meat sector
European Meat Network, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 22/10/21 Brussels, Sustainable food systems
Stichting IMAGINE Foundation, Frans Timmermans, Executive VicePresident 07/02/23 Brussels, Sustainable food systems and regenerative agriculture
COPA COGECA, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 04/10/22 Brussels, EU Promotion Policy for agricultural goods
COPA COGECA, Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, 16/06/22 Brussels Sustainable food systems
Yours faithfully,
Elaine Girvan
Finance and Admin Director
Changing Markets
Newtonlaan 115
3584 BH
Utrecht
Netherlands
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 21/04/2023 and registered on 02/05/2023 under the case number
2023/2529.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 25/05/2023. 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 Climate Action - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Ms Girvan,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2023/2529.
Kind regards,
CLIMA Access to documents Team
Dear Climate Action,
Concerning your request that I reduce the scope of my request 2023/2529, I note that my request was for the “minutes/notes of the following meetings (and related lobbying materials, e.g. accompanying slides, briefings, reports etc)” of 16 meetings. In your letter of 10 April 2023, you note that the handling of my request “involves the assessment of a very voluminous documents originating from third parties”, the analysis of which, together with the need to consult the third parties concerned, means my request cannot be expected to be completed within the normal time limits set out in Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. You conclude that documents related to maximum 7 meetings could be dealt with in the time limit.
However, as it appears that it is primarily the “very voluminous documents originating from third parties” that would make this request difficult to respond to within the time limit, I’d like to propose a different way of narrowing the scope of my request.
Specifically, I’d narrow the scope to cover only the minutes of the 16 meetings, and, in addition, the related lobbying materials (e.g. accompanying slides, briefings, reports etc), for just 3 of the meetings, namely:
Nestle S.A., Danone, Unilever, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 26/04/21 Brussels - video conference, Dairy denominations
Landbrug & Fødevarer - Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Lukas Visek and Stefanie Hiesinger, Cabinet members of Frans Timmermans 22/09/22 Brussels, Meeting with the President of the Danish Agriculture and Food Council (DAFC), Mr. Søren Søndergaard, representing Danish farmers and some of the EU’s major cooperatives in the dairy and pig-meat sectors, Arla Foods and Danish Crown
UECBV, Lukas Visek, Cabinet member of Frans Timmermans 12/11/20 Brussels - video conference, Increasing sustainability in the meat sector
It is my hope that this narrowing of scope is a fair solution, that can be achieved within the time limit. However, in the event that this is not possible, please consider the Commission’s minutes of the 16 meetings to be the priority, followed by the accompanying lobbying materials of the Nestle meeting re. dairy denominations.
I would appreciate your confirmation that this narrowed scope is acceptable.
Yours faithfully,
Elaine Girvan
Dear Ms Girvan,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 2 May 2023 under case number EASE 2023/2529.
We are currently working on your 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 25.05.2023.
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 18.06.2023.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
CLIMA Access to documents Team
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Climate Action,
In your email of 26 May 2023, you noted that you needed to extend the time limit to handle my request EASE 2023/2529 by 15 additional working days, and that the new time limit expires on 18.06.2023.
It is now 20 June - ie the extended time limit expired two days ago - and I have not yet received your reply to my request. I'd therefore like to politely request that you send me the documents that my request pertains to with all possible haste, as I should, by law, have already received them.
If for any reason you are unable to send me these documents, I would kindly ask for an explanation of under what legal provision this delay beyond the 15+15 working days is justified.
Yours faithfully,
Elaine Girvan
Dear Ms Girvan,
Thank you for your email.
Please accept our apologies for replying to your email with delay.
We are aware of the delay in sending out the reply for your request EASE 2023/2529 and we apologize for any inconvenience we might have caused.
Due to an unprecedented and unexpected heavy workload, we have been prioritizing the urgent request in a chronological order.
We can ensure you that we are doing our very best to accommodate your request following the best practice of good administrative behaviour.
You should expect our final reply to the above mentioned request by next week.
Thank you for your patience.
CLIMA Access to documents Team
Dear [email address],
In your email of Monday 26 June, you noted that I should expect your final reply to my delayed request EASE 2023/2529 by next week - ie the week of 3rd - 7th July. As this deadline has now passed, I am once again writing to ask you to please send me the reply to my request with all possible haste.
Yours sincerely,
Elaine Girvan
Dear Ms Giravan,
Thank you for your email.
Indeed, we expected your final reply to be ready by last week, but unfortunately this is not the case.
With our proposal for a fair solution on 10th May, we intended to clarify that amount of documents requested to collect and assess was considerable and that this would have gone beyond the deadline. As our proposal of narrowing down the scope of your request was not accepted, we can assure you we are doing our very best to cope with the heavy workload and accommodate your request.
In any event, I inform you that it is your right to lodge a confirmatory application in case of late reply.
Thanks for your patience.
Best regards,
CLIMA Access to documents Team
Dear [email address],
Many thanks for the update.
You noted that your 10 May proposal for narrowing down the scope of my request was not accepted, which I am puzzled by, because I did indeed narrow down the scope of my request, though in a different way to that which you suggested (ie I suggested excluding the related lobbying materials of most of the meetings, and focusing only on the Commission minutes). As I stated in my reply of 11 May:
"as it appears that it is primarily the “very voluminous documents originating from third parties” that would make this request difficult to respond to within the time limit, I’d like to propose a different way of narrowing the scope of my request.
Specifically, I’d narrow the scope to cover only the minutes of the 16 meetings, and, in addition, the related lobbying materials (e.g. accompanying slides, briefings, reports etc), for just 3 of the meetings" (which were detailed.)
I furthermore added that:
"It is my hope that this narrowing of scope is a fair solution, that can be achieved within the time limit. However, in the event that this is not possible, please consider the Commission’s minutes of the 16 meetings to be the priority, followed by the accompanying lobbying materials of the Nestle meeting re. dairy denominations." (ie just 1 of the meetings, if 3 was too many for you to handle).
I would note that I finished my email of 12 May by stating that "I would appreciate your confirmation that this narrowed scope is acceptable." I did not however receive such confirmation from you, so was only able to assume that this proposal was acceptable. I am therefore confused by your suggestion that I didn't narrow down the scope of my request in the interest of finding a fair solution.
Please can you inform me if you did or did not in fact accept my proposal to exclude the accompanying lobbying materials of all bar three (or even one) of the meetings?
Yours sincerely,
Elaine Girvan
Dear Ms Girvan,
Thank you for your reply.
If you provide us with a phone number, we would be glad to explain to you the procedure in detail. In that case you can ask questions directly and we can provide you with more detailed information.
Best regards,
CLIMA Access to documents Team
Dear Ms Girvan,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2023/2529.
Please accept our deepest apologies for the delay in handling your
request.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
CLIMA Access to documents Team
Dear Ms Girvan,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2023/2529.
Please accept our deepest apologies for the delay in handling your
request.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
CLIMA Access to documents Team
Dear Ms Girvan,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2023/2529.
Please accept our deepest apologies for the delay in handling your
request.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
CLIMA Access to documents Team
Dear Ms Girvan,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2023/2529.
Please accept our deepest apologies for the delay in handling your
request.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
CLIMA Access to documents Team