Ref. Ares(2021)1122689 - 09/02/2021
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EDUCATION, YOUTH, SPORT AND CULTURE
Reporting directly to the Director-General
Policy Coordination and Inter-institutional relations
Brussels
EAC.01/GW/ADC
Peter Teffer
Ekko Voorkamer
Bemuurde Weerd WZ 3
3513 BH Utrecht
The Netherlands
Only by email:
ask+request-8947-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Sir,
Subject : Your application for access to documents – GESTDEM 2021/0314
We refer to your e-mail of 18 January 2021 in which you make a request for access to
documents pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (hereinafter ‘Regulation
1049/2001’), registered on 19 January 2021 under the above mentioned reference
number.
You request access to the following documents:
‘
All documents - including but not limited to minutes, (hand-written) notes, audio
recordings, verbatim reports, operational conclusions, lines to take, briefings, e-mails,
letters, and presentations - related to all contact Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, Director-
General Roberto Viola and other DG Connect staff has had with Ms Madeleine de Cock
Buning, Vice President for Public Policy, Europe, Middle East and Africa, of Netflix, in
2020 and 2021’
Please note that due to the wide scope of your request, covering also areas falling under the
responsibility of other Directorates-General, parts of your request have been attributed to
other Directorates-General. This reply relates only to the documents held by the Directorate-
General for Education and Culture. You will receive the replies from the other respective
Directorates-General in due course.
The following documents have been identified in the Directorate-General for Education and
Culture as falling within the scope of your request:
1) Briefing for Netflix meeting with VP for EMEA Public Policy, 23/06/2020
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
2) Email exchange between Netflix and Cabinet Gabriel, 30/06/2020
Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation 1049/2001,
we have arrived at the conclusion that the two identified documents can be disclosed with
only personal data redacted in the second document.
Document 2 contains personal data, in particular names and function of EC staff not
occupying senior management posts and of third parties. Disclosure of these parts is
prevented by the exception concerning the protection of privacy and the integrity of the
individual outlined in Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001.
Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation 2018/17251, 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, we conclude that, pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001,
access cannot be granted to the personal data contained in the requested document, 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. Disclosure must
therefore be refused to the aforementioned parts of this document. We are therefore
disclosing a version of the document 2 with the aforementioned parts blanked out.
You may reuse public documents, which have been produced by the European Commission
or by public and private entities on its behalf based on the
Commission Decision on the
reuse of Commission documents. You may reuse the documents disclosed free of charge
and for non-commercial and commercial purposes provided that the source is acknowledged
and that you do not distort the original meaning or message of the documents. Please note
that the Commission does not assume liability stemming from the reuse.
In case you would disagree with this position, you are entitled, in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation 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
1 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, OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39.
2
Yours faithfully,
Graham WILKIE
Head of Unit
Enclosure: 2
3
Electronically signed on 09/02/2021 11:28 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482