Ref. Ares(2022)4073243 - 01/06/2022
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR TRADE
Directorate D – The Americas, Agriculture and Food Safety
Latin America
Brussels
TRADE.D.2/OC/FDP/mbb (2022)
by e-mail only: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Ms Justine Muller
via Giovanni Sercambi, 11
50133 Firenze
Italia
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem 2022/2661
Dear Madam,
I refer to your application dated 11/05/2022, in which you make a request for
access to documents under Regulation (EC) No 1049/20011 (‘Regulation
1049/2001’), registered the same date under the above mentioned reference
number.
(1)
SCOPE OF YOUR REQUEST
In your request, you asked for access to the following documents:
– 1st meeting of the subcommittee on trade and sustainable development of the
trade agreement between the European Union (EU) of the one part, and
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, of the other part.
– 2nd meeting of the subcommittee on trade and sustainable development of the
trade agreement between the European Union (EU) of the one part, and
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, of the other part.
1 Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20
May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission
documents (OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43).
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Office: CHAR 06/139 - Tel. direct line +32 229-94583
– 3rd meeting of the subcommittee on trade and sustainable development of the
trade agreement between the European Union (EU) of the one part, and
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, of the other part.
– 1st meeting of the board of commerce and sustainable development of the
association agreement between Central America and the European Union.
– 2nd meeting of the board of commerce and sustainable development of the
association agreement between Central America and the European Union.
– 3rd meeting of the board of commerce and sustainable development of the
association agreement between Central America and the European Union.
– 4th meeting of the board of commerce and sustainable development of the
association agreement between Central America and the European Union.
(2)
ASSESSMENT
AND
CONCLUSIONS
UNDER
REGULATION
1049/2001
In accordance with settled case law2, when an institution is asked to disclose a
document, it must assess, in each individual case, whether that document falls
within the exceptions to the right of public access to documents set out in Article
4 of Regulation 1049/2001. Such assessment is carried out in a multi-step
approach:
– first, the institution must satisfy itself that the document relates to one of the
exceptions, and if so, decide which parts of it are covered by that exception;
– second, it must examine whether disclosure of the parts of the document in
question pose a ‘
reasonably foreseeable and not purely hypothetical’ risk of
undermining the protection of the interest covered by the exception;
– third, if it takes the view that disclosure would undermine the protection of any
of the interests defined under Article 4(2) and Article 4(3) of Regulation
1049/2001, the institution is required ‘
to ascertain whether there is any
overriding public interest justifying disclosure’3.
In view of the objectives pursued by Regulation 1049/2001, notably to give the
public the widest possible right of access to documents4, ‘
the exceptions to that
right […] must be interpreted and applied strictly.’5
2 Judgment in
Sweden and Maurizio Turco v Council, Joined cases C-39/05 P and C-
52/05 P, EU:C:2008:374, paragraph 35.
3
Id., paragraphs 37-43. See also judgment in
Council v Sophie in ‘t Veld, C-350/12 P,
EU:C:2014:2039, paragraphs 52-64.
4 See Regulation 1049/2001, recital (4).
2
In reply to your request, I can inform you that we have identified 11 documents
that fall within the scope of your request. The identified documents are listed for
ease of reference in Annex I. For each of the documents the Annex provides a
description and indicates whether parts or entire documents are withheld and if so,
on which grounds pursuant to Regulation 1049/2001. Copies of the accessible
documents are enclosed to this letter.
Having examined the requested documents under the applicable legal framework,
I am pleased to grant you full access to these documents;
– 1st meeting of the subcommittee on trade and sustainable development of the
trade agreement between the European Union (EU) of the one part, and
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, of the other part and its annexes 2 and 3;
– 4th meeting of the board of commerce and sustainable development of the
association agreement between Central America and the European Union;
and partial access to:
– annex 1 and 4 of the 1st meeting of the subcommittee on trade and sustainable
development of the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) of the
one part, and Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, of the other part;
– 2nd and 3rd meeting of the subcommittee on trade and sustainable development of
the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) of the one part, and
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, of the other part;
– 1st meeting of the board of commerce and sustainable development of the
association agreement between Central America and the European Union;
– 2nd meeting of the board of commerce and sustainable development of the
association agreement between Central America and the European Union;
– 3rd meeting of the board of commerce and sustainable development of the
association agreement between Central America and the European Union.
In all documents, the names and other personal data have been redacted pursuant
to article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001 and in accordance with Regulation (EC)
No 2018/1725. Hence, the main content of these documents relevant to your
request is accessible.
The reasons justifying the application of the above-mentioned exceptions are set
out below.
5 Judgment in
Sweden v Commission, C-64/05 P, EU:C:2007:802, paragraph 66.
3
PROTECTION OF THE PRIVACY AND INTEGRITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL (MINUTES
OF THE SUB- COMMITTEES ON TRADE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT)
Pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 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 (EC) No 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/EC6 (‘Regulation
2018/1725’).
The minutes of the sub-committees on trade and sustainable development contain
personal information, such as names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers that
allow the identification of natural persons, as well as other personal information.
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.7 Please note in this respect that the names, signatures, functions, telephone
numbers and/or initials pertaining to staff members of an institution are to be
considered personal data.8
In its judgment in Case C-28/08 P (
Bavarian Lager)9, 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.10
6 Official Journal L 205 of 21.11.2018, p. 39.
7 Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 20 December 2017 in Case
C-434/16, Peter Novak v Data Protection Commissioner, request for a preliminary ruling,
paragraphs 33-35, ECLI:EU:T:2018:560.
8 Judgment of the General Court of 19 September 2018 in cas
e T-39/17, Port de Brest v
Commission, paragraphs 43-44, ECLI:EU:T:2018:560.
9 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.
10 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
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.
In your application, 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 minutes of the sub-committees on trade and
sustainable development, 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 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.
Additionally, signatures also have been removed from the minutes to avoid the
risk of fraudulent use of such signatures.
applicable under the new data protection regime established by Regulation 2018/1725.
5
(3)
MEANS OF REDRESS
In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, you are entitled to make
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 Secretary-General of the Commission at the following
address:
Secretary-General European Commission
Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents BERL 7/76
Rue de la Loi 200/Wetstraat 200 1049 Brussels
Belgium
or by email t
o: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx.
Yours sincerely,
Paolo GARZOTTI
Encl.:
Annex I: List of documents
6
Annex I: List of documents
No.
Subject
Date
Release
Exception
invoked
1
Minutes 1st meeting subcommittee TSD EU - February 6th 2014
Full
NA
Colombia, Ecuador Peru
2
Annex 1 1st meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
February 6th 2014
Partial
4.1(b)
Colombia, Ecuador Peru
3
Annex 2 1st meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
February 6th 2014
Partial
4.1(b)
Colombia, Ecuador Peru
4
Annex 3 1st meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
February 6th 2014
Full
NA
Colombia, Ecuador Peru
5
Annex 4 1st meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
February 6th 2014
Partial
4.1(b)
Colombia, Ecuador Peru
6
Minutes 2nd meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
June 16th -17th 2015
Partial
4.1(b)
Colombia, Ecuador Peru
7
Minutes 3rd meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
December 7th – 8th 2016
Partial
4.1(b)
Colombia, Ecuador Peru
8
Minutes 1st meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
November
18th
-19th
Partial
4.1(b)
Central America
2014
9
Minutes 2nd meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
May 27th -28th 2015
Partial
4.1(b)
Central America
10
Minutes 3rd meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
June 15th -16th 2016
Partial
4.1(b)
Central America
11
Minutes 4th meeting subcommittee TSD EU -
June 11th – 12th 2018
Full
NA
Central America
7
Electronically signed on 01/06/2022 09:41 (UTC+02) in accordance with Article 11 of Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121
Document Outline