To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Malloch-Brown on 20 May (WA 321–2), whether the European Commission keeps minutes of all its meetings. [HL3940]

As my noble friend the Minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, Lord Malloch-Brown, stated in his previous Answer, the Commission does not routinely publish minutes of meetings attended by its officials. However, all official meetings of the European Commission (the College) are minuted. These records are available to the public by searching for the document type “minutes” in language “EN” on the Commission's document register at http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/recherche.cfm?CL=en.

The Commission's provisions for document management, and which records it keeps (including minutes), are clearly spelt out on its website at http://europa.eu/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2002/1_021/1_02120020124en00230027.pdf.

As stated in the previous Answer, any document held by the Commission is subject to Regulation 1049/01 on access to documents of the EU institutions.