The 211st-240th Commission replies to confirmatory applications issued in 2020

The request was partially successful.

Maarten Hillebrandt

Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,

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:

The 211st to the 240th final decisions by the European Commission in confirmatory application procedures under Regulation 1049/2001 issued in 2020. (An initial request for access to the first 210 confirmatory application decisions produced in 2020 was already made in 7 previous requests.)

The purpose for my request is academic research.

As with my previous similar requests, explicitly excluded from my request are:

- Any personal data contained in these decision documents - which means that the Commission need not spend any time contacting third parties, and that I agree to the Commission pre-emptively suppressing the contents of any such sections.
- Any related documents - I am exclusively interested in the documents issuing decisions and the legal justification contained therein.

Moreover, where English-language versions of the documents are available, I seek access merely to the version in that language.

Since the current request is moreover otherwise nearly identical in scope to my previous requests, I hope that no search for a fair solution procedure will be needed, so that the request can be handled in the shortest possible time frame.

In case any of the documents included in my request were already proactively published, I kindly request you to refer me to the precise URL at which they can be located.
My postal address is:

Dr. Maarten Hillebrandt
University of Helsinki
Faculty of Law
Eric Castrén Institute
Yliopistonkatu 3
00101 Helsinki
Finland

I do not have a need to receive paper copies of the relevant documents, with the transmission of digital versions of the requests documents to this access portal and to my email address sufficing: [email address].

Yours faithfully,
Maarten Hillebrandt

SG ACCES DOCUMENTS, Secretariat General of the European Commission

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Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your e-mail of 18 January 2022. We hereby acknowledge
receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered
on 18/01/2022 under reference number GESTDEM 2022/0411.

 

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application
will be handled within 15 working days.

 

The time limit will expire on 8 February 2022. In case this time limit
needs to be extended, you will be informed in due course.

 

You have lodged your application via a private third-party website, which
has no link with any institution of the European Union.

Therefore, the European Commission cannot be held accountable for any
technical issues or problems linked to the use of this system.

 

Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not the Commission.

For further information on your rights, please refer to the third party’s
privacy policy.

 

We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with the
Commission on that website. This includes the personal data that you may
have communicated to the Commission (e.g. your private postal address).

 

Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that the
Commission will send to the email address of the applicants generated by
the AsktheEU.org website.

 

If you do not wish that your correspondence with the Commission is
published on a private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can
provide us with an alternative, private e-mail address for further
correspondence. In that case, the Commission will send all future
electronic correspondence addressed to you only to that private address,
and it will use only that private address to reply to your request. You
should still remain responsible to inform the private third-party website
about this change of how you wish to communicate with, and receive a reply
from, the Commission.

 

For information on how we process your personal data visit our page
[5]Privacy statement - access to documents.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM (IC)

 

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European Commission

Secretariat-General

SG.C1 (Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents)

[7][email address]

 

 

 

 

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Maarten Hillebrandt

Dear SG ACCES DOCUMENTS,

On 18 January 2022 I sent a request for access to "the 211st-240th Commission replies to confirmatory applications issued in 2020". (See: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/the_...)

Under the response deadlines set by Regulation 1049/2001, I should have received a response by 8 February. This is to notify you that, should I receive no response by Tuesday 15 February, I will consider this an unsubstantiated access denial contestable through a confirmatory application.

Yours sincerely,
Maarten Hillebrandt

Sg-Acc-Doc@ec.europa.eu, Secretariat General of the European Commission

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Dear Sir,

 

Thank you for your email.

 

Please be informed that a reply to your initial request for access to
documents has already been sent to you on 14/01/2022 under reference
Gestdem 2021/8357.

 

Please be also informed that we indicated in our letter that: "

 

"The identified documents falling within the scope of your request,
including their

detailed references, are listed in annex I of this reply. I draw your
attention to the fact that

the Secretariat-General decided to exceptionally identify 13 more
documents as falling

within the scope of your request, as these were the last decisions taken
by the European

Commission in confirmatory application procedures under Regulation
1049/2001 issued

in 2020".

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Access to documents team (cr)
SG.C.1
Transparency
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Maarten Hillebrandt

Dear [email address],

Thank you for your response, and apologies for the oversight from my said. That being said, I would like to point out that, even when they concern documents already requested, it is still incumbent on the Commission to respond to an access to documents request, rather than to abandon such a request without response. As this case illustrates, such administrative silence can lead to unproductive misunderstandings.

Yours sincerely,
Maarten Hillebrandt