Ref. Ares(2022)4766807 - 29/06/2022
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR MIGRATION AND HOME AFFAIRS
Directorate D – Internal Security
D.4 – Security in the Digital Age
Brussels
HOME.D.4/AP
By registered letter with acknowledgment of
receipt
Ms Nienke Palstra
Global Witness
Rue Belliard 53
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Advance copy by email: ask+request-11323-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – GESTDEM 2022/3026
Dear Ms Palstra
We refer to your request of 24 May 2022 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 25 May 2022 under the above-mentioned reference number.
You request access to all documents - including but not limited to correspondence,
emails, minutes, notes (hand written or electronic), audio or video recordings, verbatim
reports, operational conclusions, lines to take, briefings, and presentations - related to the
meeting on 2022-02-08 between Ylva Johansson and Google.
Your request concerns the following documents:
1. Briefing for Commissioner Johansson’s visit to Ireland, including attachments
(Voluntary Principles to Counter online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation),
7/02/2022, Ares(2022)4716377
2. Notes from Commissioner Johansson’s visit to Ireland, 11/02/2022,
Ares(2022)1032717
3. Thank you letter from Kent Walker (Google), 3/2/2022, Ares(2022)857186
4. Thank you letter from Google, 15/2/2022 Ares, Ares(2022)1130954
Parts of the documents include information that does not relate to the meeting with Google
concerned by your request. This information is therefore out of scope of the request and has
been redacted.
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel.
+32 22991111
1. Disclosure with redaction of personal data
Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, I have come to the conclusion that these
documents may be disclosed.
However, a complete disclosure of the identified documents 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 some of them contain the
following personal data:
-
the names/initials and contact information of Commission staff members not
pertaining to the senior management;
-
the names/initials and contact details of other natural persons;
-
other information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, such as
positions held in an organisation.
Article 9(1)(b) of the Data Protection Regulation1 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 put forward
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 1049/2001, access
cannot be granted to the personal data contained in the requested 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.
2. Disclaimer
Regarding the disclosed minutes and summary records of meetings, the documents were
drawn up for internal use under the responsibility of the relevant services of the
Directorate-General for Home Affairs and Migration. They solely reflects the author's
interpretation of the interventions made and do not set out any official position of the
third parties to which the documents refer, which was not consulted on its content. They
do not reflect the position of the Commission and cannot be quoted as such.
3. Means of redress
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:
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. 39–98.
2
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]
BAUER-BULST Cathrin
Head of Unit D4
3
Electronically signed on 29/06/2022 12:37 (UTC+02) in accordance with Article 11 of Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121