Ref. Ares(2021)3001509 - 05/05/2021
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY
The Director-General
Brussels,
SANTE/B4/AM/ (2021)
By registered letter with
acknowledgement of receipt1
Kenneth Haar
Overgaden oven Vandet 12
1415 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Advance copy by email:
ask+request-9001-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Mr Kenneth Haar
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2021/0848
We refer to your email dated 4 February 2021 in which you make a request for access to
documents on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/20012 (or ‘the Regulation’), registered
on 18 February 2021 under the above mentioned reference number. We refer also to our
e-mail of 11 March 2021, extending the deadline for handling the application.
1. Scope of your request
In your request, you ask access to documents which contain the following information:
(i) a list of meetings of DG SANTE officials and/or representatives (including the
Commissioner and her Cabinet) and representatives of EFPIA (including Vaccines
Europe) since 1 September 2020.
(ii) minutes and other reports of these meetings;
(iii) all correspondence (including emails) between DG SANTE officials and/or
representatives (including the Commissioner and Cabinet) and representatives of EFPIA
(including Vaccines Europe) regarding vaccines against COVID, including questions
concerning patents, since 1 September 2020.
2. Assessment of the documents
We have identified 63 documents falling under the scope of your request.
1 According to standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered post. Please note,
however, that due to the extraordinary health and security measures currently in force during to the COVID-19
epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical staff to telework, we are unfortunately
not in a position to follow this procedure until further notice. We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm
receipt of the present e-mail
2
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 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
Since some documents originate from a third party in accordance with Art. 4(4) of
Regulation, the originators of the documents have been consulted in order to assess whether
an exception established in Article 4 applies to these documents.
Having examined the document under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 and
considered the opinion of the third parties, we have come to following conclusion, which is
further explained below:
Full access can be granted to document 13bis, 15bis, 22bis, 25bis, 31quater,
31quinquies, 33bis, 34bis, 38bis, 39bis and 41 bis.
partial access can be granted to documents 1- 4, 5-13; 13 ter - 15, 16-22, 23-25, 26-
31 ter, 32-33, 34, 35-38, 39, 40, 40 bis, 41 and 42 as their full disclosure is
prevented by one of the exceptions to the right of access laid down in Article 4 of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001;
no access can be granted to document 4 bis as its disclosure is prevented by an
exception to the right of access laid down in Article 4 of the Regulation.
Some parts of document number 5, 6 and 8 have been redacted as they fall outside of
scope of the request.
You may reuse public documents, which have been produced by the European Commission
or by public and private entities on its behalf based on the
Commission Decision on the
reuse of Commission documents. You may reuse the documents disclosed free of charge
and for non-commercial and commercial purposes provided that the source is
acknowledged and that you do not distort the original meaning or message of the
documents. Please note that the Commission does not assume liability stemming from the
reuse.
Please note that 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. The European Commission does not assume any responsibility from their
reuse.
Minutes or a summary record of a meeting with external parties were drawn up for internal
use under the responsibility of the relevant services of the Directorate-General for
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. They solely reflect the services’
interpretation of the interventions made and do not set out any official position of the third
parties to which the document refers, which was not consulted on its content. They do not
reflect the position of the Commission and cannot be quoted as such
3. Reasons for partial disclosure
Protection of the privacy and integrity of the individual, in particular in accordance with
Community legislation regarding the protection of personal data - Article 4(1)(b) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
With regard to documents 1- 4, 5-13; 13 ter - 15, 16-22, 23-25, 26-31 ter, 32-33, 34, 35-38,
39, 40, 40 bis, 41 and 42 a complete disclosure is prevented by the exception concerning
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the protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual outlined in Article 4(1)(b) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, because they 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;
-
handwritten signatures.
Article 9(1)(b) of the Data Protection Regulation3 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
any arguments to establish the necessity to have the data transmitted for a specific purpose
in the public interest.
Consequently, we 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 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.
Therefore the above-listed documents are disclosed redacted of the parts containing
personal data.
4. Refusal of documents
Protection of the commercial interests of a legal person - Article 4(2), first indent, of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
The document 4 bis contain information whose disclosure may undermine the commercial
interest of a legal person, and it may include business sensitive information and information
covered by intellectual property.
Document 4 bis includes information originated with the third parties; informed of the
present request for this access to documents, a third party has been consulted and has
objected to the disclosure of the document in question, alleging that disclosure would put in
the public domain business sensitive information and risk resulting in potential adverse
impacts on their competitive position on the market.
Having considered the opinion of the third parties, we came to the conclusion that the
exception laid down in Article 4(2), first indent, of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 applies
to the concerned documents.
We have considered whether partial access could be granted to this document. However, we
have come to the conclusion that the documents are entirely covered by the above exception
to the right of access to documents.
3 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.
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Therefore, no access can be granted to document 4 bis.
5. Overriding public interest
The exceptions to the right of access provided for in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 must be waived if there is an overriding public interest in disclosing the
requested document. In your application, you did not submit any grounds concerning a
public interest on the basis of which the interests protected in Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 would have to be overridden, and we could not identify any such ground
either. In these circumstances, we have to conclude that there is no evidence of an
overriding public interest in disclosure, in the sense of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
6. Means of redress
In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 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:
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Unit C.1. ‘Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents’
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Bruxelles
or by email to:
xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
[e-signed]
Sandra GALLINA
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Electronically signed on 30/04/2021 15:30 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482