Malta gas pipeline PCI correspondence and assessment

The request was successful.

Dear The Innovation and Networks Executive Agency,

Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:

1. All correspondence to date with the Maltese government (Melita Transgas), on the INEA decision to award funding for the Malta-Sicily gas pipeline in 2018, 2019 and 2020;

2. Any documents (if not included in correspondence requested above) communicated to Melita Transgas in which INEA gives explanation as to why PCI for Malta-Sicily pipeline was not awarded funding.

Yours faithfully,

Matthew Vella
MaltaToday

ve_inea.inea-access-documents (INEA), Agencia Ejecutiva de Innovación y Redes

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping

[4]Ares(2021)438728 - RE: access to documents request - Malta gas pipeline
PCI correspondence and assessment-INEA 2021/3

Sent by ve_inea.inea-access-documents (INEA)
<[INEA request email]>. All responses have to be sent to
this email address.
Envoyé par ve_inea.inea-access-documents (INEA)
<[INEA request email]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Mr Vella,

 

Thank you for your e-mail of 19 January 2021. We hereby acknowledge
receipt of your application for access to documents, which was registered
on 19/01/2021 under reference number INEA 2021/3.

 

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application
will be handled within 15 working days. The time limit will expire on 9
February 2021 . In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course.

 

You have lodged your application via a private third-party website, which
has no link with any institution of the European Union. Therefore, INEA
cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or problems linked to
the use of this system.

 

Please note that the private third party running the AsktheEU.org website
is responsible and accountable for the processing of your personal data
via that website, and not INEA. For further information on your rights,
please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.

 

We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org website
usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with INEA on
that website. This includes the personal data that you may have
communicated to  INEA.

 

Similarly, the third party publishes on that website any reply that INEA
will send to the email address of the applicants generated by the
AsktheEU.org website.

 

If you do not wish that your correspondence with INEA is published on a
private third-party website such as AsktheEU.org, you can provide us with
an alternative, private e-mail address for further correspondence.  In
that case, INEA will send all future electronic correspondence addressed
to you only to that private address, and it will use only that private
address to reply to your request. You should still remain responsible to
inform the private third-party website about this change of how you wish
to communicate with, and receive a reply from, INEA.

 

 

Yours faithfully,

INEA Access to Documents Team

 

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ve_inea.inea-access-documents (INEA), Agencia Ejecutiva de Innovación y Redes

9 Attachments

  • Attachment

    7 First notification on rejection of proposal 5 19 0006 MTIT W M 19 Redacted.pdf

    1.4M Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    2 Action 5 19 0006 ITMT S M 17 LET Transmission of the Grant Agreement Redacted.pdf

    144K Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    6 Action 5 19 0006 ITMT S M 17 Amend no 1 redacted.pdf

    301K Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    1 Action 5 19 0006 ITMT S M 17 email informing about funding Redacted.pdf

    75K Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    9 Single Notification on rejection after adoption of Decision proposal 5 19 0012 MTIT W M 20 Redacted.pdf

    1.5M Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    8 Last notification on rejection of proposal 5 19 0006 MTIT W M 19 docx Redacted.pdf

    522K Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    3 Action 5 19 0006 ITMT S M 17 Agreement redacted.pdf

    652K Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    5 Action n 5 19 0006 ITMT S M 17 LET amendment Redacted.pdf

    264K Download View as HTML

  • Attachment

    4 Action n 5 19 0006 ITMT S M 17 LET transmission of the signed GA Redacted.pdf

    214K Download View as HTML

Link: [1]File-List
Link: [2]themeData
Link: [3]colorSchemeMapping

[4]Ares(2021)1121180 - Access to documents- Malta gas pipeline PCI
correspondence and assessment-INEA 2021/3

Sent by ve_inea.inea-access-documents (INEA)
<[INEA request email]>. All responses have to be sent to
this email address.
Envoyé par ve_inea.inea-access-documents (INEA)
<[INEA request email]>. Toutes les réponses doivent être
effectuées à cette adresse électronique.

Dear Mr Vella,

 

We refer to your e-mail of  19/01/2021 in which you make a request for
access to documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, registered under
the reference number INEA 2021-3.

 

You request access to:

·         All correspondence to date with the Maltese government (Melita
Transgas), on the INEA decision to award funding for the Malta-Sicily gas
pipeline in 2018, 2019 and 2020;

·         Any documents (if not included in correspondence requested
above) communicated to Melita Transgas in which INEA gives explanation as
to why PCI for Malta-Sicily pipeline was not awarded funding.

 

In view of handling these access to document requests, we have identified
the following documents:

 1. Action 5.19-0006-ITMT-S-M-17- email informing the applicant about
funding-Ares(2018)451206 - 25/01/2018
 2. Action 5.19-0006-ITMT-S-M-17- LET_Transmission of the Grant agreement-
Ares(2018)3133710-14/06/2018
 3. Action 5.19-0006-ITMT-S-M-17_Agreement - Ares(2018)3133710-14/06/2018
 4. Action 5.19-0006-ITMT-S-M-17_LET_transmission of the signed grant
agreement –Ares(2018)3374617-26/06/2018
 5. Action
5.19-0006-ITMT-S-M-17_LET_amendment-Ares(2020)3944053-27/07/2020
 6. Action 5.19-0006-ITMT-S-M-17_Amendment n°1-
Ares(2020)3944053-27/07/2020
 7. First notification on the rejection of proposal 5.19-0006-MTIT-W-M-19-
Ares(2019)6427673- 17/10/2019
 8. Last notification on the rejection of proposal 5.19-0006-MTIT-W-M-19 -
Ares(2019)6906760 - 07/11/2019
 9. Single notification on rejection of proposal 5.19-0012-MTIT-W-M-20
after Adoption of the Commission Decision – Ares
(2020)5577075-15/10/2020

 

Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation
(EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, we have come to
the conclusion that the documents mentioned above may be partially
disclosed (see attachments). We have redacted parts of the documents that
are protected either by Article 4(1)(b) (protection of privacy and the
integrity of the individual) or Article 4(2) first indent (commercial
interests of natural and legal person, including intellectual property
rights) of the Regulation.

 

·         Article 4(2), first indent of Regulation 1049/2001 provides that
“the institutions shall refuse access to a document where disclosure would
undermine the protection of commercial interests of a natural or legal
person, including intellectual property (…) unless there is an overriding
public interest in disclosure.”  Elements such bank account details,
indicative start and end dates of the activities, milestones table (set up
for monitoring the progress of the project on behalf of the contracting
parties) and the estimated breakdown of financial costs per activity were
redacted on the basis of the protection of the commercial sensitive
information (documents 3 and 6). Elements relating to the cost structure
of legal entities constitute business secrets, their disclosure to third
parties is likely to affect the commercial interests of the concerned
legal entities. The parts redacted in the notification of the rejection of
the two proposals (documents 7 and 9) contain commercial sensitive
information coming from the proposal submitted by Melita Transgras that
must be protected from public disclosure as these elements may have an
economic value for other legal entities and may be used by other potential
applicants when preparing their grant application for future calls for
proposals.

The exception laid down in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
applies unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure of the
document. We have examined whether there could be an overriding public
interest in disclosure, but we were not able to identify such an interest.

 

·         According to Article 4(1) (b) of Regulation 1049/2001, access to
a document is refused where disclosure would undermine "the protection of
privacy and the integrity of the individual, in particular in accordance
with Community legislation regarding the protection of personal data." The
documents to which you seek access contains names, position in the related
legal entities and contact details. This information constitute personal
data in the meaning of Article 3 (1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 (the EU
Data Protection Regulation).

In its judgement C-28/08 P- the Bavarian Lager case, the European Court of
Justice rules that, when a request is made for access to documents
containing personal data, the Data Protection Regulation becomes fully
applicable. Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 does not allow
the transmission of these personal data, except if the
recipients/applicants proves that it is necessary to have the data
transmitted to them for a specific purpose in the public interest and,
where there is reason to assume that the legitimate interests of the data
subject might be prejudiced. The various competing interests should be
weighed by the data controller, in order to establish that it is
proportionate to transmit the personal data for that specific purpose.

In your application you have not established a specific need to obtain
personal data. Therefore, the requirements for disclosing personal data
are not met according to the EU Data Protection Regulation. In addition,
there are reasons to assume that the legitimate interests of the data
subjects concerned would be prejudiced by the disclosure of the personal
data redacted in the documents, as there is a risk that such public
disclosure would harm their privacy and subject them to unsolicited
external contacts. All the personal data included in the attached
documents were therefore redacted.

 

Disclaimers:

1.       You have lodged your application via a private third-party
website, which has no link with any institution of the European Union.
Therefore, INEA cannot be held accountable for any technical issues or
problems linked to the use of this system.

2.       We understand that the third party running the AsktheEU.org
website usually publishes the content of applicants’ correspondence with
INEA on that website. This includes the personal data that you may have
communicated to INEA. Please note that the private third party running the
AsktheEU.org website is responsible and accountable for the processing of
your personal data via that website, and not INEA. For further information
on your rights, please refer to the third party’s privacy policy.

3.       Please note that documents or part of the documents originating
from third parties are disclosed to you based on Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001. However, this disclosure is without prejudice to the rules on
intellectual property, which may limit your right to reproduce or exploit
the released documents without the agreement of the originator, who may
hold an intellectual property right on them. INEA does not assume any
responsibility from their reuse.

 

In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, you are entitled
to make a confirmatory application as regards your request for access to
documents requesting the Agency to review this position.

Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days
upon receipt of this letter to the Director of INEA at the following
address:

INEA

Chaussée de Wavre 910

B-1049 Bruxelles

or by email to: [5][email address]

Yours sincerely,

 

Best regards,

INEA ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

 

 

 

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