Ref. Ares(2022)1466389 - 28/02/2022
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
CLIMATE ACTION
Legal Affairs, Inter-Institutional Relations & Communication
Brussels
Carlotta Indiano
Investigative Reporting Project Italy
Viale Giulio Cesare, 92
00192 Roma
Italy
Email: ask+request-10387-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2021/8084
Dear Ms. Indiano
We refer to your e-mail dated 13 December 2021 in which you make a request for access
to documents, registered on 14 December 2021 under the above-mentioned reference
number.
You requested access to:
“
For the period between 2019 to date:
i)
“List of all meetings and/or calls between the Directorate-General for
Climate Action and the GD4S lobby group, including any Cabinet Members
and/or officials, during which projects on synthetic fuels and/or projects on
hydrogen were discussed. The list should include: date, individuals attending
and organisational affiliation, as well as the issues discussed;
a. all minutes and other reports of these meetings and/or calls;
b. all documents prepared for the purpose of the meetings issued both in
preparation and after the meetings took place.
c. 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
GD4S lobby group discussing “synthetic fuel” and/or “hydrogen ”.
2. All documents sent by the GD4S lobby group to the DG Climate Action related to their
synthetic fuel projects and/or their hydrogen projects”.
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
DG CLIMA has identified the following documents within the scope of your application:
Author
Date
Reference
1
GD4S
11 November 2020
Ares(2020)6800859
2
GD4S
11 November 2020
Ares(2020)6800859
3
GD4S
3 June 2021
Ares(2021)3692982
4
GD4S
3 June 2021
Ares(2021)3692982
5
GD4S/European
7 June 2021
Commission
Ares(2021)3735310
6
Eurogas
27 May 2021
Ares(2021)3528430
7
Eurogas
27 May 2021
Ares(2021)3528430
8
Enagas
17 March 2021
Ares(2021)1948839
9
Enagas
17 March 2021
Ares(2021)1948839
10 European Commission
10 May 2021
Ares(2021)3126994
11 GD4S/European
16 March 2020
Commission
Ares(2020)1596482
Following an examination of the documents under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001, I regret to inform you that a complete disclosure of documents 1-6 and 8-11 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 it contains:
names 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
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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 above-mentioned
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.
Please note that the list of meetings of the Executive Vice-President Timmermans, his
Cabinet and the meetings of the Director-General of Directorate-General for Climate
Action 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 your application you requested access to a list of meetings of meetings of all staff in
Directorate-General for Climate Action. Please note that the Members of the
Commission shall make public information on all meetings held by them and members of
their Cabinet with organisations or self-employed individuals on issues relating to policy-
making and implementation in the Union in accordance with the Commission Decision
2104/839/EU, Euratom of 25 November 20141. The same obligation applies to officials
of the European Commission having the status of Director-General in accordance with
the Commission Decision 2104/838/EU, Euratom of 25 November 20142. However, the
same obligation does not apply to lower-ranking officials, such as the remaining
members of the Directorate-General for Climate Action.
As specified in Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the right of access as
defined in that regulation applies only to existing documents in the possession of the
institution, that is to say, documents drawn up or received by it and in its possession, in
all areas of activity of the European Union.
The Court of Justice held that ‘the right of access to documents of the institutions applies
only to existing documents in the possession of the institution concerned and […]
Regulation No 1049/2001 may not be relied upon to oblige an institution to create a
document which does not exist. It follows that, […], an application for access that would
require the Commission to create a new document, even if that document were based on
information already appearing in existing documents held by it, falls outside the
framework of Regulation No 1049/2001’3.
1 OJ L 343, 28.11.2014, p. 22–24
2 OJ L 343, 28.11.2014, p. 19–21
3 Judgment of the Court of Justice of 11 January 2017,
Typke v
European Commission, C-491/15 P,
EU:C:2017:5, paragraph 31.
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In the present case, the Directorate-General for Climate Action does not hold any list of
all meetings of its staff with the specific organisations and self-employed individuals
concerned by your request in addition to the publicly available information on meetings
of the Director-General, which is accessible via the abovementioned links. In this respect,
I would like to confirm that compiling such a list in order to fulfil your request would
equal to the creation of a new document, as neither can such a list be extracted from a
database by means of a normal or routine search.
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
4
Electronically signed on 24/02/2022 15:28 (UTC+01) in accordance with Article 11 of Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121