Ref. Ares(2021)4164888 - 25/06/2021
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY
The Director-General
Brussels
SANTE.
By registered letter with acknowledgement
of receipt1
BAYER Lili
POLITICO Europe
Rue de la Loi 62
Brussels 1040
Belgium
Advance copy by email: ask request-9468-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Madam,
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2020/3111
We refer to your email dated 11 May 2021 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 12 May 2021 under the above-mentioned reference number.
We further refer to our email dated 7 June 2021 extending the time limit for responding
to your request pursuant to Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/20012.
1. Scope of your request
In your application, you request on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 access to:
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
“
Any correspondence between DG SANTE and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) during the
time period between November 2020 and February 2021. Any internal notes or
correspondence among DG SANTE staff which mention Doctors Without Borders".
2. Identification and assessment of the documents
We have identified 14 documents falling under the scope of your request.
You will find enclosed a table listing the identified documents and summarising the
outcome of the assessment carried out on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Since some documents originate from third party, in accordance with Art. 4(4) of
Regulation (EC) 1049/2001, 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 these documents under the provisions of Article 4 of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 and considered the opinion of the third party, we have come to the
following conclusion:
documents, numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 can be partially disclosed 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.
documents, numbered 4, 6, 7, 8 can be fully disclosed.
We enclose a copy of the documents.
Please note that in documents 11 and 12 parts falling outside the scope of the request
have been redacted and labelled “out of scope”.
Please note that the 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.
The minutes/BTO/ reports of meetings with external parties are documents drawn up for
internal use under the responsibility of the relevant services of the Directorate-General
SANTE. It solely reflects the services’ interpretation of the interventions made and does
not set out any official position of the third parties to which the document refers, which
was not consulted on its content. It does not reflect the position of the Commission and
cannot be quoted as such.
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.
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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 the documents numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 can 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 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/abbreviated signatures of natural persons;
- other information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person, such as job
titles or functions.
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.
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 documents listed above are disclosed redacted of the parts containing
personal data.
4. Means of redress
In case you would disagree with the assessment that the redacted data are personal data
which can only be disclosed if such disclosure is legitimate under the applicable rules on
the protection of personal data, 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:
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.
3
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 faithfully,
Sandra GALLINA
Enclosure:
List of the documents and disclosed documents
4
Electronically signed on 24/06/2021 19:51 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482