Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,

On January 31st Markus Pieper was appointed as EU small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) Envoy. The European Commission posted an announcement on its website, but there were no links to more detailed information outlining the remit of the newly-created envoy post. Here's the announcement: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa....

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 precise remit of the newly-created EU SME Envoy post
- details on the Envoy's future interaction with the Regulatory Scrutiny Board
- transparency requirements around the activities of the EU SME Envoy, including regarding meetings with stakeholders
- other rules that will apply the EU SME Envoy
- statements and declarations of previous activities submitted by Markus Pieper as part of the recruitment procedure for the post
- statement of assurance by a Member of the Commission about absence of conflicts of interest on the basis of Articles 11 and 11a of the Staff Regulations, as part of the recruitment procedure

Yours faithfully,

Olivier Hoedeman
on behalf of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Rue d'Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels

Dear [email address],

thank you for your response to our access to documents request. Regrettably access to two sets of documents was rejected, but your response also included the following announcement: "Your request also included a number of other items, which concerned information, rather than the access to documents. That part of your request was attributed to the relevant services and you should receive a reply to it in due course."

It is now more than three weeks later and I have not received any reply. Could you inform me when the response will arrive? The missing response concerns the following:
"- the precise remit of the newly-created EU SME Envoy post
- details on the Envoy's future interaction with the Regulatory Scrutiny Board
- transparency requirements around the activities of the EU SME Envoy, including regarding meetings with stakeholders
- other rules that will apply the EU SME Envoy"

Yours sincerely,

Olivier Hoedeman
on behalf of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Rue d'Edimbourg 26,
1050 Brussels, Belgium

Dear Secretariat General of the European Commission,

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 'The remit of the newly-created EU SME Envoy role'.

On February 29th I submitted a request for the following documents (2024/1169):
- the precise remit of the newly-created EU SME Envoy post
- details on the Envoy's future interaction with the Regulatory Scrutiny Board
- transparency requirements around the activities of the EU SME Envoy, including regarding meetings with stakeholders
- other rules that will apply the EU SME Envoy
- statements and declarations of previous activities submitted by Markus Pieper as part of the recruitment procedure for the post
- statement of assurance by a Member of the Commission about absence of conflicts of interest on the basis of Articles 11 and 11a of the Staff Regulations, as part of the recruitment procedure

On April 15th, I got a letter rejecting access to the two last mentioned sets of documents due to "protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual", and the claim that "the public interest has not been substantiated". While this is a questionable decision, I will not appeal this as Mr. Pieper decided to resign from the SME Envoy role.

After that I expected to receive meaningful information for the other four topics. Unfortunately – after I had sent a reminder - Unit HR.02 responded on May 8th that “after extensive internal consultation, no additional information could be provided“. This implies that these documents don’t exist. It seems very unlikely to me that the European Commission would employ a highly paid SME Envoy and announce this with a press release, but not have any documents outlining the precise remit of the EU SME Envoy post. It is also hard to imagine that there would be no documents elaborating on the Envoy's interaction with the Regulatory Scrutiny Board, nor any documents describing transparency requirements and other rules for the post. For these reasons, I herewith submit a confirmatory application (excluding statements and declarations of previous activities and statement of assurance of absence of conflicts of interest) and request that the Commission conducts another search of its files.

A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/the_...

Yours sincerely,

Olivier Hoedeman
on behalf of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Rue d'Edimbourg 26,
1050 Brussels, Belgium