Ref. Ares(2025)2379981 - 24/03/2025
Ref. Ares(2025)2380049 - 24/03/2025
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR MIGRATION AND HOME AFFAIRS
The Director-General (acting)
Brussels
HOME.B.2.002/MG
Sofie Croonenberg
Per email with acknowledgement of
receipt:
ask+request-15527-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – EASE 2025/0657
Dear Ms Croonenberg,
I refer to your request for access to European Commission documents registered on
07/02/2025 under the above-mentioned reference number.
You request access to several Commission documents. The following documents fall
within the scope of your application:
-
Annex 1 to the Commission Implementing Decision establishing the report of the
2024 Schengen evaluation of Poland C(2024) 8110 (hereafter
“
document 1”)
-
Annex 2 to the Commission Implementing Decision establishing the report of the
2024 Schengen evaluation of Poland C(2024) 8110 (hereafter
“
document 2”)
These documents were prepared in the context of the procedures envisaged in Regulation
(EU) 2022/922 on the establishment and operation of an evaluation and monitoring
mechanism to verify the application of the Schengen
acquis. Article 28 of this Regulation
provides that the evaluation reports shall be ‘sensitive non-classified’ and that the
Commission, after consulting the Member State concerned, shall decide which parts of the
evaluation report can be made public.
In the context of the consultation, Poland opposes public access to
document 1 on the grounds
of possible prejudice to the public interest of Poland and the EU within the meaning of Article
4(1)(a) of Regulation 1049/2001. The Polish authorities argue that access to the document
could harm Poland’s security, as it contains information on border management, visa policy,
return policy, police cooperation, large-scale IT EU systems and data protection.
Having examined the requested documents under the provisions of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and the Council regarding public access to
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË – Tel. +32 22991111
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (1), hereafter ‘Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001’, and taking into consideration the consultation of Poland, I have come to the
conclusion that document 1
may be partially disclosed, whereas
document 2 can be
disclosed.
Recital 8 of the Commission Implementing Decision C(2024) 8110 stipulated that pursuant
to Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2022/922, the classification status of
document 1 is
‘sensitive non-classified’ in accordance with Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2015/443
(2). With the aim of strengthening mutual trust and accountability among Member States and
ensuring better coordination at Union level, the executive summary and recommendations of
the report should however be made public, in accordance with the Schengen Evaluation Guide
established by Commission Recommendation C(2023) 6790 (3). These parts of the report are
set out in
document 2 and can be found on the Commission’s website using the following
link:
https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen/schengen-area/schengen-evaluation-
and-monitoring-mechanism_en.
The disclosure of parts of
document 1 is prevented by the exception to the right of access
laid down in the first indent of Article 4(1)(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, which
provides that “[t]
he institutions shall refuse access to a document where disclosure would
undermine the protection of the public interest as regards public security”.
The main outcome of the Schengen evaluation includes the adoption by the European
Commission of an evaluation report listing and describing weaknesses and deficiencies in
the application of various aspects of the Schengen
acquis identified. The level of detail is
very high, as it contains very precise factual information, describing the technical and
factual deficiencies. The disclosure of the other parts of report would reveal information that,
once public, could be explored and instrumentally used by criminal networks involved in
migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings. The disclosure would thus jeopardise the
work of law enforcement officials and pose a hazard to the course of ongoing and future
operations aimed at curtailing the activities of such networks, ultimately obstructing their
purpose to counter and prevent cross-border crime as well as to prevent unauthorised border
crossings. This information is closely related to the effective protection of one of the most
sensitive EU external borders and therefore interlinked with national security aspects and
the safeguarding of public order.
Given the sensitive and delicate nature of the subject matter at hand and the ongoing
monitoring of the implementation of the recommendations made as a result of the
evaluation report, I consider the risk to undermining public interest as regards public
security as reasonably foreseeable and not purely hypothetical. Furthermore, public
disclosure of the withheld parts of the requested report, which has been sent to the Polish
authorities as part of the evaluation procedure, would be detrimental to the proper conduct
of the evaluation and its follow up, affecting the climate of mutual trust between the
(1) OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43.
(2) Commission Decision (EU, Euratom) 2015/443 of 13 March 2015 on Security in the Commission (OJ
L72, 17.3.2015, p.41, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2015/443/oj).
(3) Commission Recommendation C(2023) 6790 of 16 October 2023 on the establishment of a Schengen
evaluation guide to be used for the implementation of the Schengen evaluation and monitoring
mechanism.
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European Commission and the state concerned, which is necessary at any stage of the
discussions.
It should be recalled that Article 25 of Regulation (EU) 2022/922 on the establishment and
operation of an evaluation and monitoring mechanism to verify the application of the
Schengen
acquis provides that the Commission shall submit annually to the European
Parliament and to the Council a comprehensive public report on the evaluations carried out
pursuant to this Regulation during the previous year. This report shall include, among others,
information on the conclusions drawn from those evaluations. That report shall, on the basis
of the results of the evaluation and monitoring activities carried out pursuant to this
Regulation, identify common issues, best practices and innovative solutions in order to
improve the implementation of the Schengen acquis. The Commission will adopt this report
– the annual State of Schengen report – in April and it will include the abovementioned
information on Poland.
In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, you are entitled to make
a confirmatory application requesting the Commission to review this position.
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed to the Secretariat-General of the
Commission within 15 working days upon receipt of this letter.
You can submit it in one of
the following ways:
by asking for a review via your portal (4) account (available only for initial requests
submitted via the portal account),
or by mail:
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents (SG.C.1)
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Brussels
or by email to: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Finally, I note that your request has been submitted outside the EASE portal. Therefore,
I would appreciate, if you could
acknowledge receipt of the present letter by sending
an email to
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx.
Yours sincerely,
Beate GMINDER
(4
) https://www.ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-request
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Electronically signed on 24/03/2025 13:18 (UTC+01) in accordance with Article 11 of Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121
