Ref. Ares(2021)5857302 - 26/09/2021
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
CLIMATE ACTION
The Director-General
Brussels
CLIMA.DG
Lucy Owens
1 Long Ln,
London SE1 4PG,
United Kingdom
Advance copy by email: ask+request-9765-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2021/4589
Dear Mr Owens,
We refer to your e-mail dated 12 July 2021 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 16 July 2021 under the above-mentioned reference number.
You requested access to: “
All correspondence, including emails, sent and received since
01/01/2020, between the Commissioner for Climate Action, his cabinet, his officials, and
any other representatives of DG CLIMA, and representatives from Daimler / Daimler
AG and its subsidiaries”.
DG CLIMA has identified several documents that fall under scope of the request, the list
of identified documents is annexed to this letter.
Following an examination of the documents under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001 regarding public access to documents and taking into account the opinion of
the third parties, I regret to inform you that a complete disclosure cannot be granted, as
disclosure is prevented by exceptions to the right of access laid down in Article 4 of this
Regulation.
A complete disclosure of the documents 1-15, 16-19, 22-25 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: names and contact
information of Commission staff members not pertaining to the senior management; names
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Office: BU-24 3/087 - Tel. direct line +32 229-61666
xxxxx.xxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
and contact details of other natural persons and other information relating to an identified or
identifiable natural person.
Article 9(1)(b) of the Data Protection Regulation 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, I 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 above-mentioned
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.
Furthermore, the author of the documents has objected to the disclosure of some parts of
documents 2, 14, 18 and 25.
The author considered that some parts of the documents 14, 18 and 25 “
contain sensitive
commercial and technical business information from our company and allow conclusions
to be drawn as to the technical know-how of our company”. The disclosure would
undermine their commercial interests and should be protected under the first indent of
Article 4 (2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
As regards document 2, the author considered that some parts of the document should be
protected against disclosure in accordance with the second indent of Article 4 (2) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 as it consider that its disclosure would undermine the
protection of court proceedings and legal advice must be refused.
Therefore, following the results of the third party consultation, I conclude that the
exceptions laid down in Article 4(2) first indent and 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
apply to some parts of this document. The documents have been blanked out accordingly.
The exceptions laid down in Article 4(2) and 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 apply
unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure of the documents. I have examined
whether there could be an overriding public interest in disclosure, but that I have not been
able to identify such an interest.
Please note that some of 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.
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.
2
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:
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Transparency,
Document
Management
&
Access
to
Documents
(SG.C.1)
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Bruxelles
or by email to:
xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
(e-signed)
Mauro PETRICCIONE
3
Electronically signed on 23/09/2021 08:35 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482
