Tobacco lobby contacts second half 2018
Dear DG Trade,
On behalf of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), I would like to - under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties as developed in Regulation 1049/2001 - request access to the following documents:
- all reports (and other notes) from meetings between the European Commission and representatives of the tobacco industry (producers, distributors, importers etc, as well as organisations and individuals that are funded by and/or work to further the interests of the tobacco industry), in the period July 1st - December 31st 2018.
- all correspondence (including emails) between the European Commission and representatives of the tobacco industry (producers, distributors, importers etc. as well as organisations and individuals that are funded by and/or work to further the interests of the tobacco industry), in the period July 1st - December 31st 2018.
- a list of all the above-mentioned documents (including dates, names of participants/senders/recipients and their affiliation, subject of meeting/correspondence)
There is a clear public interest in disclosure of these documents, with reference to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (Article 5.3) and its guidelines for implementation:
- “in setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.”
- “Parties should ensure that any interaction with the tobacco industry on matters related to tobacco control or public health is accountable and transparent,” and “establish measures to limit interactions with the tobacco industry and ensure the transparency of those interactions that occur.”
Yours faithfully,
Olivier Hoedeman
on behalf of Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
Rue d'Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of 24 April 2020. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 28
April 2020 under reference number GESTDEM 2020/2463.
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 20
May 2020 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
[1]Privacy statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Access to Documents Team
DG TRADE
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
While analysing your application GESTDEM 2020/2463 we have realised that
the scope of this request could be entirely covered by the similar request
submitted by you and assigned to TRADE in 2018 (GESTDEM 2018/6666). The
answer to this request was provided to you on 6 February 2019.Therefore,
we would like kindly ask you to confirm that you are still interested in
access to the documents as described in your application 2020/2463 in the
period July 1st - December 31st 2018.
We are looking forward your confirmation
Yours sincerely
TRADE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
From: TRADE ACCES DOCUMENTS
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2020 5:48 PM
To: 'Olivier Hoedeman' <[FOI #7895 email]>
Subject: Your access to documents request - Tobacco lobby contacts second
half 2018 GESTDEM 2020/2463
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your e-mail of 24 April 2020. We hereby acknowledge receipt
of your application for access to documents, which was registered on 28
April 2020 under reference number GESTDEM 2020/2463.
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 20
May 2020 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
[1]Privacy statement – access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Access to Documents Team
DG TRADE
Dear DG Trade,
thank you for your message. As far as I can see from my files, my previous access-to-documents requests focusing on tobacco lobbying contacts have not resulted in the disclosure of any DG Trade documents (whether correspondece or meeting notes) in the period July 1st - December 31st 2018. It would seem likely that there were contacts with the tobacco industry in that period, hence my latest A2D request.
Yours faithfully,
Olivier Hoedeman
Dear Mr Hoedeman,
We refer to your access to documents request registered on 28/04/2020
under the above mentioned reference number.
Your application is currently being handled. However, due to the fact that
DG Trade is still checking its files to identify the relevant documents,
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 20/05/2020.
Therefore, we have to extend the time limit with 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 15/06/2020.
We apologise for this delay and for any inconvenience this may cause.
Yours sincerely,
Access to Documents Team
European Commission
DG TRADE
Dear applicant,
Please find attached the reply to your request for access to documents, registered under reference GestDem 2020/2463
According to our standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered post. Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary health and security measures currently in force during to the COVID-19 epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical staff to telework, we are unfortunately not in a position to follow this procedure until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm receipt of the present e-mail by replying to [DG TRADE request email].
TRADE ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS TEAM