Ref. Ares(2020)5039960 - 25/09/2020
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
CLIMATE ACTION
Legal Affairs, Inter-Institutional Relations & Communication
Brussels
By registered letter with acknowledgment of
receipt
Belen Balanya
Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d’Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Advance copy by email: ask+request-8349-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2020/4245
Dear Ms Balanya,
We refer to your e-mail dated 12 July 2020 in which you make a request for access to documents,
registered on 13 July 2020 under the above-mentioned reference number.
Your submitted an application for access to documents covers topics falling under the
responsibility of different Commission services. In that regard, your request has been split to the
separate requests, whereby each part is attributed to the respective Commission service under a
separate Gestdem reference number. Each Director-General service provides its own, separate
reply which relates only to the documents held by that service.
In particular, this reply covers the following scope:
i.
“
All correspondence (including email) between 1st December 2019 and 12 July 2020
between Executive Vice-president Timmermans and/or their cabinets and/or officials
from the European Commission on one hand and representatives from IOGP, Shell,
Total, BP, Equinor, ZEP, the Global CCS Institute, Hydrogen Europe, the Hydrogen
Council, Business Europe, the European Roundtable for Industry, GasNaturally,
Eurogás, ENTSO-G, Snam, Enagás, Fluxys, Open Grid Europe, GRTGaz, Teréga,
Eurofer, ArcelorMittal, FTI Consulting, Fleishman Hillard, Alstom, Engie, Air Liquide,
Toyota, Gas for Climate consortium, Gas Infrastructure Europe on the other, in which
the Hydrogen strategy was addressed.
ii.
list of meetings between 1st December 2019 and 12 July 2020 between officials and
representatives of DG CLIMA on one hand and representatives from IOGP, Shell, Total,
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Office: BU24 01/078 - Tel. direct line +32 229-50164
BP, Equinor, ZEP, the Global CCS Institute, Hydrogen Europe, the Hydrogen Council,
Business
Europe,
the
European
Roundtable
for
Industry,
GasNaturally,
Eurogás,ENTSO-G, Snam, Enagás, Fluxys, Open Grid Europe, GRTGaz, Teréga,
Eurofer, ArcelorMittal, FTI Consulting, Fleishman Hillard, Alstom, Engie, Air Liquide,
Toyota, Gas for Climate consortium, Gas Infrastructure Europe on the other, in which
the Hydrogen strategy was addressed.
iii.
Minutes of the meetings mentioned above”.
We have identified 77 documents that fall under the scope of your application. The list of
identified documents is enclosed with this letter.
In accordance with Article 4(4) of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001, DG CLIMA has consulted those
third parties concerning the disclosure of the requested documents emanating from them.
Please find the identified document enclosed with this letter. However, I regret to inform you that
I cannot give you access to some parts of documents 1-17, 19-29, 31-40, 42-44, 46-52, 55-71, 73
and 75-76.
A complete disclosure of the above-mentioned 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: names and contact information of
Commission staff members not pertaining to the senior management; names and contact details
of other natural persons; other information relating to an identified.
Article 9(1)(b) of the Data Protection Regulation does not allow the transmission of these
personal data, except if you prove that it is necessary to have the data transmitted to you for a
specific purpose in the public interest and where there is no reason to assume that the legitimate
interests of the data subject might be prejudiced. In your request, you do not express any
particular interest to have access to these personal data nor do you put forward any arguments to
establish the necessity to have the data transmitted for a specific purpose in the public interest.
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
2
Yours sincerely,
(e-signed)
Luca DE CARLI
3
Electronically signed on 25/09/2020 15:05 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563
Document Outline
