Ref. Ares(2019)2394795 - 04/04/2019
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL JUSTICE and CONSUMERS
Directorate D: Equality and Union citizenship
Unit D.3: Union citizenship rights and free movement
Head of Unit
Brussels,
DG JUST/ D3/MS/mb(2019)s2591912
By registered letter with
acknowledgment of receipt
Mr Alexander Fanta
Schonhauser Allee 6-7
10119 Berlin
Germany
Advanced copy:
ask+request-6299-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Mr Fanta,
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2019/0983
We refer to your e-mail dated 19/02/2019 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 19/02/2019 under the above mentioned reference number.
You request access to minutes as well as documents submitted by Member States at the
meeting of the European cooperation network on elections on January 21, 2019 in Brussels.
Your application concerns the documents listed in the annex to this letter. Since some of the
documents concerned originate from third parties, the originators of the documents have been
consulted.
For item 1 in the annex we enclose the copy of the document requested. You may reuse the
document requested free of charge for non-commercial and commercial purposes provided that
the source is acknowledged, that you do not distort the original meaning or message of the
document. Please note that the Commission does not assume liability stemming from the reuse.
For items 2 and 3 in the annex we enclose the copies of the documents requested. Please note
that these documents were received by the Commission from Member States. They are
disclosed for information only and cannot be re-used without the agreement of the originator,
who holds a copyright on it. They do not reflect the position of the Commission and cannot be
quoted as such.
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Office: LU40 02/52 - Tel.+ 32 2 29 82177 - e-mail: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
For items 4-6, 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/EC1 (‘Regulation 2018/1725’).
The documents to which you request access contain personal data, in particular names and
contact details of the originators of the documents.
Indeed, 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 data.2
In its judgment in Case C-28/08 P (
Bavarian Lager)3, the Court of Justice ruled that when a
request is made for access to documents containing personal data, the Data Protection
Regulation becomes fully applicable.4
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.
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.
1 Official Journal L 205 of 21.11.2018, p. 39.
2 Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 20 December 2017 in Cas
e C-434/16, Peter Nowak
v Data Protection Commissioner, request for a preliminary ruling, paragraphs 33-35,
ECLI:EU:C:2017:994. 3 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.
4 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.
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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, 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 the assessment that the redacted data are personal data which
can only be disclosed if such disclosure is legitimate under the applicable rules on the
protection of personal data, 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 Bruxelles, or by email to:
xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
(e-signed)
Marie-Hélène Boulanger
Enclosures:
List of documents as well as the respective documents
Contact:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Electronically signed on 01/04/2019 17:10 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563
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