Conseil UE Συμβούλιο της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης Βρυξέλλες, 6 Ιανουαρίου 2016 (OR. en) 14178/15 LIMITE INF 192 API 108 PUBLIC ΣΗΜΕΙΩΜΑ ΣΗΜΕΙΟΥ «Ι/A» Αποστολέας: Ομάδα «Πληροφόρηση» Αποδέκτης: Επιτροπή των Μονίμων Αντιπροσώπων (2ο Τμήμα)/Συμβούλιο αριθ. προηγ. εγγρ.: 14176/15 Θέμα: Πρόσβαση του κοινού στα έγγραφα - Επιβεβαιωτική αίτηση αριθ. 23/c/01/15 Επισυνάπτεται για τις αντιπροσωπίες σχέδιο απάντησης του Συμβουλίου στην επιβεβαιωτική αίτηση αριθ. 23/c/01/15 που εγκρίθηκε από την Ομάδα με γραπτή διαδικασία, η οποία ολοκληρώθηκε στις 6 Ιανουαρίου 2016. Η σλοβακική αντιπροσωπεία και η αντιπροσωπεία του Ηνωμένου Βασιλείου καταψήφισαν το σχέδιο απάντησης. Οι αντιπροσωπίες συμφώνησαν να δημοσιευθεί το αποτέλεσμα της ψηφοφορίας. Υποβλήθηκε η ακόλουθη δήλωση: ΣΚ, ΗΒ: ΣΚ, ΗΒ: «Εκτιμούμε ότι θα πρέπει να εφαρμοσθεί η εξαίρεση που χρησιμοποιήθηκε κατά την αρχική φάση (η εξαίρεση που προβλέπεται στο άρθρο 4, παράγραφος 3, πρώτο εδάφιο του κανονισμού 1049/2001) δεδομένου ότι η διαδικασία λήψης αποφάσεων σχετικά με το οικείο σχέδιο νομοθετικής πράξης είναι εν εξελίξει και σύμφωνα με τις αρχές μας είναι ευαίσθητου χαρακτήρα. Η Σλοβακική Δημοκρατία και το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο εκτιμούν ότι η απάντηση θα μπορούσε να αποτελέσει προηγούμενο για το μέλλον, παρότι στην απάντηση δηλώνεται ότι αυτό δεν θα πρέπει σε καμία περίπτωση να συμβεί.» 14178/15 ΔΑ/γπ 1 DG F 2C LIMITE EL
Καλείται συνεπώς η Επιτροπή των Μόνιμων Αντιπροσώπων να εισηγηθεί στο Συμβούλιο, κατά την προσεχή του σύνοδο : - να συμφωνήσει, υπό τα σημεία «Α», σχετικά με το συνημμένο σχέδιο απάντησης. - να αποφασίσει να δημοσιεύσει το αποτέλεσμα της ψηφοφορίας. Το παράρτημα είναι διαθέσιμο μόνον στην αγγλική γλώσσα. 14178/15 ΔΑ/γπ 2 DG F 2C LIMITE EL
ΠΑΡΑΡΤΗΜΑ DRAFT REPLY ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL ON... TO CONFIRMATORY APPLICATION 23/c/01/15, made by email on 9 November 2015, pursuant to Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, for public access to documents "discussed at the trilogue negotiations regarding the Trade Secrets Directive" The Council has considered this confirmatory application under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ L 145 of 31.5.2001, p. 43) and Annex II to the Council s Rules of Procedure (Council Decision 2009/937/EU, Official Journal L 325, 11.12.2009, p. 35) and has come to the following conclusion: 1. The applicant refers to "minutes of the trilogue meetings and technical meetings taking place between representatives of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission in connection with the Commission's Proposal for a Directive on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure" as well as "preparatory documents for the meetings, and any documents which were discussed within the meetings, including position papers sent by industry". 2. In its reply of 19 October 2015 to the applicant's request dated 28 September 2015, the General Secretariat of the Council identified the agenda for the 15 September trilogue meeting and a four-column document of 7 September to which it gave full access, and two further four-column documents of 24 and 28 September, to which it gave partial access. 14178/15 ΔΑ/γπ 3
3. In the confirmatory application dated 9 November 2015, the applicant reiterates the initial application, as far as it was unsuccessful. The applicant also considers that further documents should have been identified, such as a record of the discussions under item 3 of the Intellectual Property attachés meeting of 30 September 2015 and minutes of the Coreper meetings at which the Presidency debriefed the Council. Full access to the documents partially withheld in the initial phase 4. In the initial phase, the General Secretariat has relied on the exception contained in Article 4(3), first subparagraph, of Regulation 1049/2001. This exception applies where disclosure of the document would seriously undermine the institution's decision-making process on condition that there is no overriding public interest in disclosure. 5. The Council has carefully considered the confirmatory application. It has re-assessed the request for access in full consideration of the principles underlying Regulation No 1049/2001, the aim of ensuring the widest possible public access to documents and the fact that wider access should be granted to documents in cases where the institutions are acting in their legislative capacity. 6. Taking into account the current state of play in the legislative procedure concerned, it has come to the conclusion that on balance the public's interest in disclosure outweighs the existing concerns in relation to the protection of the decision-making process, and that therefore full public access to the requested documents should now be granted. 7. The Council notes, however, that the present positive decision is based on the facts of the concrete confirmatory application concerned, and under no circumstances it can constitute a precedent for the future, since each application shall be assessed and judged on its own merit, pursuant to the established practice of the Council. Alleged failure to appropriately record trilogue proceedings 8. The applicant alleges that the Council has failed to appropriately record discussions that have taken place in the trilogues concerned. 14178/15 ΔΑ/γπ 4
9. Trilogues have a very informal nature. Their exclusive goal is to find a compromise between co-legislators. Due to this, only records are drafted that are necessary or at least useful for the attainment of that goal. The practical approach of Council negotiators in this file has thus been to only note aspects that are useful in the sense of a possible compromise and to then reflect them in the next four-column document (i.e. a document like the ones partially disclosed in the initial phase), but to refrain from recording any aspects that have no such usefulness. What this comes down to is that any progress made will be reflected in the next four-column document while any lack of progress remains unrecorded. The Council considers that this approach is far from "arbitrary or unpredictable", as the applicant seems to imply, but on the contrary simply very practical common sense. 10. The Council thus cannot see any failure to appropriately record trilogues and technical meetings. 11. As to records of the meeting of the Intellectual Property attachés held on 30 September 2015 and of relevant Coreper meetings, it should be pointed out that these meetings have taken place after the date of the initial application and thus cannot have been covered by it. 12. However, in a spirit of good cooperation, the Council can inform the applicant that no records were made for the Intellectual Property attachés meeting of 30 September 2015 and that Coreper only establishes "summary records" of its meetings. The summary records of relevant Coreper meetings 23-25 September, 21 October and 30 October 2015 have in the meantime been drafted and have been made public upon circulation (Council documents 12306/15, 13216/15 and 13406/15 respectively). Position papers sent by industry representatives 13. As in the initial application the applicant has specifically referred to position papers sent by industry representatives, the Council would like to explicitly confirm that no such documents have been discussed in trilogue or technical meetings. 14178/15 ΔΑ/γπ 5