Third party documents held by the EEAS
Article 6
1. Where the EEAS receives an application for access to a document which it holds, but which originates from a third party, the third party shall be consulted unless it is clear that the document shall or shall not be disclosed, in light of the exceptions set out in the Regulation. 2. Access to the document shall be granted without consultation of the third party if the document has already been made public by its author, has been already released by the EEAS, or if it is clear that the disclosure, or partial disclosure, of its content would obviously not affect any of the interests referred to in Article 4 of the Regulation. 3. The third party must always be consulted if the document is covered by Article 9 of the Regulation, or if the document originates from a Member State and the Member State has requested the EEAS not to disclose the document without its prior agreement in accordance with Article 4(5) of the Regulation. Such a request by a Member State shall be made in writing. 4. The third party shall be consulted in writing and be given a reasonable time limit to reply, taking into account the time limits set out in Article 3 of this Decision. The third party shall give its opinion in writing. 5. In the absence of a reply from the third party within the time limit, or if the third party is unidentifiable or untraceable, the EEAS shall decide on the application in light of the exceptions set out in the Regulation, taking into account the legitimate interests of the third party on the basis of the information at its disposal. 6. If the EEAS intends to give access to a document against the explicit opinion of the third party, it shall inform the third party of its intention to disclose the document within the time limit applicable under the Regulation.