Ref. Ares(2017)810384 - 14/02/2017
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Secretariat-General
Directorate E - Policy Co-ordination II
The Director
Brussels,
SG/E/WS
Mr. Vincent Harmsen
By email only:
ask+request-3670-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Sir,
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GESTDEM No
2016/7234
We refer to your e-mail dated 22/12/2016, which was registered on 23/12/2016,in which
you make a request for access to documents,. As you know, your request has been
divided in 6 parts (GESTDEM references). This letter replies to GESTDEM 2016/7234,
the part of your request attributed to the Secretariat General.
You request access to the following:
"documents which contain the following
information:
-on the topic of endocrine disruptors (also spelled: disrupters), all emails with in
attachment scientific studies, or in general documents containing conclusions drawn by
scientists or scientific organisations, sent to officials/representatives of the European
Commission (all DGs, including the SG) by third parties (between March 15th 2016 and
December 22th 2016).
This request entails the emails and their attachments.
When 'officials' are mentioned in this request this includes the Commissioners and their
Cabinet members, as well as the Commission President and his Cabinet."
We have identified the documents in the Annex, which correspond to the description given
in your application.
Please note that documents received simultaneously by several Commission services, or
Commissioners, will in principle be released by the responsible Commission service only.
As a consequence, access to documents number 2/2.a. and 3/3.a. will be provided to you by
DG Health and Food Safety as part of request GESTDEM 2016/7237.
For documents 1/1.a. and 4/4.a. partial or full access will be provided as indicated in the
Annex.
European Commission, 1049 Brussels, Belgium - Tel. +32 22991111.
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/secretariat_general/
The documents you requested are enclosed, expunged of personal data, in particular name
and contact details of individuals.
Pursuant to Article 4(1) (b) of Regulation (EC) No 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 Community legislation regarding the
protection of personal data. The applicable legislation in this field is 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.
When access is requested to documents containing personal data, Regulation (EC) No
45/2001 becomes fully applicable.
According to Article 8(b) of this Regulation, personal data shall only be transferred to
recipients if they establish the necessity of having the data transferred to them and if there is
no reason to assume that the legitimate rights of the persons concerned might be prejudiced.
We consider that, with the information available, the necessity of disclosing the
aforementioned personal data to you has not been established and/or that it cannot be
assumed that such disclosure would not prejudice the legitimate rights of the persons
concerned.
You are entitled, in accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, 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:
European Commission, Secretary-General, Transparency unit SG-B-4, BERL 5/282, B-
1049 Brussels; or by email to: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx.
Yours sincerely,
William Sleath
acting Director
Enclosures
2
Electronically signed on 14/02/2017 09:52 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563