Ref. Ares(2021)2170507 - 29/03/2021
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
CLIMATE ACTION
Legal Affairs, Inter-Institutional Relations & Communication
Brussels
Luca Rinaldi
Via Cordusio, 4
Milan
Italy
Advance copy by email: ask+request-9019-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2021/0598
Dear Mr Rinaldi,
We refer to your e-mail dated 5 February 2021 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 8 February 2021 under the above-mentioned reference number.
You requested access to the following documents “
for the period between 1 January
2019 to date:
i)
A list of all lobby and industry meetings and/or calls held by the Directorate-
General for Climate Action, including any Cabinet Members and/or officials,
during which “deep-sea mining” and/or “seabed mining” and/or “marine
minerals” were discussed.
ii)
The list should include: date, individuals attending and organisational
affiliation, as well as the issues discussed;
iii)
All minutes and other reports of these meetings and/or calls;
iv)
All documents prepared for the purpose of the meetings and/or exchanged
during the course of the meetings.
v)
All correspondence, including attachments (i.e. any emails, mail
correspondence or telephone call notes) between the Directorate-General for
Climate Action, including any Cabinet Members and/or officials, and any
lobby group and/or industry representative discussing “deep-sea mining”
and/or “seabed mining” and/or “marine minerals”
Your application concerns the following documents:
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Author
Date
Reference
Ares(2020)2973558
1
BirdLife
08/06/2020
Ares(2020)2973558
2
BirdLife
08/06/2020
Ares(2020)3034728
3
Ourfish
2/07/2020
Ares(2020)3512798
4
Ourfish
1/07/2020
Ares(2020)3512798
5
Ourfish
1/07/2020
Ares(2020)3512798
6
Ourfish
1/07/2020
Ares(2020)3512798
7
Ourfish
1/07/2020
Ares(2020)5070629
8
IT Perm Rep
25/09/2020
9
HR, CY, FR, EL, IT, MT,
Ares(2020)5070629
25/09/2020
PT, SI, ES Perm Rep
10 European Commission /
Ares(2020)5137681
30/09/2020
IT Perm Rep
Following an examination of these documents under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001 regarding public access to documents and taking into account the opinion of the
third party, I regret to inform you that a complete disclosure of the documents 1, 3, 4, 8 and
10 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 and other
information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
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 documents 1, 3, 4,
8 and 10, 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.
2
Please note that the list of meetings of the Executive Vice-President Timmermans, his
Cabinet and the meetings of the Director-General of DG CLIMA with organisations and
self-employed individuals are available in the links enclosed below:
http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiative/meetings/meeting.do?host=d41e42be-7ff1-4635-
bb4f-e47d38f886ed
http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiative/meetings/meeting.do?host=f1afd532-0d40-
4dcd-8e45-667b57075377 http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiative/meetings/meeting.do?host=ec1ecb7e-2615-
44eb-895b-6b08637c2a0d
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)
Luca DE CARLI
3
Electronically signed on 29/03/2021 09:39 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482