Ref. Ares(2020)2353814 - 04/05/2020
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT
Directorate B - Investment, Innovative & Sustainable Transport
B.4 - Sustainable & Intelligent Transport
Brussels
MOVE.DDG1.B.4/CD
Mr Jake CARBONE
40 Bermondsey Street,
London
ask+request-7794-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – GESTDEM 2020/1585
Dear Mr Carbone,
We refer to your e-mail of 16/03/2020 in which you make a request for access to documents,
registered on 18/03/2020 under the above reference number GESTDEM 2020/1585, and our
holding reply of 07/04/2020.
In particular, you request access to the following: “all documentation, including but not limited to
attendance lists, agendas, background papers, minutes/notes and email correspondence about or
summarising, the following meetings:
1. Between Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie e.V. (BDI) and Director-General
Henrik Hololei on the 14/02/2020
2. Between FuelsEurope and Director-General Henrik Hololei on the 18/02/2020”.
Having examined your request, please find enclosed the following documents in the possession of
Commission services that we have identified as corresponding to your request :
1. Email correspondence of 29/01/2020 from BDI to Mr Hololei
2. Briefing prepared for Mr Hololei for the meeting with BDI
3. Meeting report of the meeting with BDI held on 14/02/2020
4. Email correspondence of 20/01/2020 from FuelsEurope to Mr Hololei
5. Briefing prepared for Mr Hololei for the meeting with FuelsEurope
In our holding reply, dated 07/04/2020, we asked an extension of deadline to reply to your
request since the defined documents are held by different services and staff in DG MOVE, who
have been consulted.
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents1 (hereinafter
‘Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001’), I have come to the conclusion that they may be partially
disclosed. Some parts of the documents have been blanked out as their disclosure is prevented by
exception to the right of access laid down in Article 4 of this Regulation.
With regard to the five documents listed above, a complete disclosure of the identified documents is
prevented by the exception concerning the protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual
outlined in Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, because they contain the following
personal data:
-
the names/initials and contact information of Commission staff members not pertaining to
the senior management;
-
the names/initials and contact details of other natural persons.
Pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, access to a document has to be refused
if its disclosure would undermine the protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual, in
particular in accordance with European Union legislation regarding the protection of personal data.
The applicable legislation in this field is Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and
of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing
of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of
such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC2 (‘Regulation
2018/1725’).
In particular, Article 3(1) of Regulation 2018/1725 provides that personal data ‘means any
information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person […]’. The Court of Justice has
specified that any information, which by reason of its content, purpose or effect, is linked to a
particular person is to be considered as personal data3.
In its judgment in Case C-28/08 P4, the Court of Justice ruled that when a request is made for access
to documents containing personal data, the Data Protection Regulation becomes fully applicable5..
Pursuant to Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation 2018/1725, ‘personal data shall only be transmitted to
recipients established in the Union other than Union institutions and bodies if ‘[t]he recipient
establishes that it is necessary to have the data transmitted for a specific purpose in the public interest
and the controller, where there is any reason to assume that the data subject’s legitimate interests
might be prejudiced, establishes that it is proportionate to transmit the personal data for that specific
purpose after having demonstrably weighed the various competing interests’.
Only if these conditions are fulfilled and the processing constitutes lawful processing in accordance
with the requirements of Article 5 of Regulation 2018/1725, can the transmission of personal data
occur.
1 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, 31.5.2001, p. 43.
2 Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of
natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies
and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC,
OC L 205 of 21.11.2018, p. 39.
3 Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 20 December 2017 in Case C-434/16, Peter Nowak v Data
Protection Commissioner, ECLI:EU:C:2017:994, paragraphs 33-35.
4 Judgment of 29 June 2010 in Case C-28/08 P, European Commission v The Bavarian Lager Co. Ltd, EU:C:2010:378,
paragraph 59.
5 Whereas this judgment specifically related to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community
institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data, the principles set out therein are also applicable under the
new data protection regime established by Regulation 2018/1725.
2
According to Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation 2018/1725, the European Commission has to examine the
further conditions for a lawful processing of personal data only if the first condition is fulfilled,
namely if the recipient has established that it is necessary to have the data transmitted for a specific
purpose in the public interest. It is only in this case that the European Commission has to examine
whether there is a reason to assume that the data subject’s legitimate interests might be prejudiced
and, in the affirmative, establish the proportionality of the transmission of the personal data for that
specific purpose after having demonstrably weighed the various competing interests.
In your request, you do not put forward any arguments to establish the necessity to have the data
transmitted for a specific purpose in the public interest. Therefore, the European Commission does
not have to examine whether there is a reason to assume that the data subject’s legitimate interests
might be prejudiced.
Notwithstanding the above, please note that there are reasons to assume that the legitimate interests
of the data subjects concerned would be prejudiced by disclosure of the personal data reflected in the
documents, as there is a real and non-hypothetical risk that such public disclosure would harm their
privacy and subject them to unsolicited external contacts.
Consequently, I conclude that, pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, access
cannot be granted to the personal data contained in the requested documents, as the need to obtain
access thereto for a purpose in the public interest has not been substantiated and there is no reason to
think that the legitimate interests of the individuals concerned would not be prejudiced by disclosure
of the personal data concerned.
In case you would disagree with this position, you are entitled, in accordance with Article 7(2) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, to submit a confirmatory application requesting the Commission to
review this position.
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days upon receipt of this
letter to the Secretariat-General of the Commission at the following address:
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Unit C.1. ‘Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents’
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Brussels
or by email to
: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
(e-signed)
Claire DEPRE
Head of Unit
3
Electronically signed on 04/05/2020 12:15 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563