Do you have examples of requests I can file?

Sure! If you desire any documents of the Union institutions, offices, bodies and agencies, here you can find some requests we filed in the past for different sets of documents. Please feel free to copy and re-use, adapt and further develop the wording. 

FragDenStaat offers a format for you to file your request via the platform. We already provide to you a pre-written template for requests. You only have to choose the authority from our database and name in the request what documents you desire. You don’t have to give reasons for why you want to gain access to the documents.

So a standard text can look like this:

Dear … ,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, 

I am requesting access to the following documents:

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any doubts or questions in regards to this request.

Yours faithfully,


Requesting documents relating to a meeting

One option to make use of your right to access documents is by requesting documents relating to meetings. In this case, you may already know about meetings which took place, but you can also submit a request without knowing many details.
For instance, if you are interested in representatives of companies’ meetings with an EU institution, body, agency or office, you can ask for those and request all related documents linked to these meetings. This could be an approach to have in mind when you want to research and compile documents associated with a certain industry. Thus, naming one, or several players within the industry  and a time period relevant for your research, is a way to formulate your request. Here you can see how this would look like. 

A different way of requesting documents concerning meetings  is when you already know specifics of particular meetings, and are interested in obtaining the documents corresponding to precisely these meetings. You might even know the date and further details. Subsequently, you can ask for all documents related to the meetings of interest. You can look at this request to see how this can look like.

Types of requestable documents relating to meetings
  • Agendas,
  • list of all attendees, 
  • Presentations,
  • Handouts,
  • Leaflets,
  • briefings or background notes,
  • reports, 
  • summaries, 
  • minutes, 
  • outcomes of proceedings, 
  • transcripts 
     

Requesting correspondence and / or contracts:

Another example for FOI-ing on EU level is to request documents regarding correspondence. If you already know which actors are of interest to you, you can ask for correspondence between the relevant EU entity and the third party, as you can see in this access to documents request addressed to the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA), asking for correspondence and contracts between EMSA and a Greek private company. Here you can find another example for these ways to file requests.

Important to note is that you don’t have to know the names of the actors involved, as the above-mentioned examples shows. You might have seen or read something in the media about acquisitions or decisions made and you want to know more about the correspondence underlying these acquisitions. Hence, you can choose the relevant EU authority and ask for these documents without necessarily knowing with whom the contact was made, as can be seen here.
Of course it’s not limited to representatives of companies. You can also think of requesting documents on advertisements, costs or emails

Types of requestable documents relating to correspondence and / or contracts

•    correspondence, including, but not limited to, letters, e-mails, and any attachments
•    Contract and extension of contract
•     internal correspondence,
 

 

As you may have seen in the submitted requests, there is no strict division of these categories, if you’re asking for correspondence; this can be in the form of contracts. If you’re requesting documents relating to meetings, correspondence (might be correspondence of the actors prior to the meetings) can also be a part of the documents that you want to gain access to. Similarly, correspondence is also commonly asked for if you’re having meetings in your head which you want to analyse.
These are just some examples and you will find more on our website.