Ref. Ares(2021)6131897 - 08/10/2021
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR INTERNAL MARKET, INDUSTRY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP
AND SMES
The Director-General
Brussels,
GROW/F1/KH/nt
grow.f.1(2021) 6732629
Mr Matias Gadaleta
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents
Ref GestDem No 2021/5105
Dear Mr Gadaleta,
We refer to your email of 17/08/2021 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 19/08/2021 under the above-mentioned reference number.
Your application was as follows:
“For the period between 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2016:
- a list of all lobby and industry meetings and/or calls held by the Directorate-General
for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, including any Cabinet
Members and/or officials, during which “PFAS” and/or “C604” and/or “PFOA” and/or
“GenX” were discussed. The list should include: date, individuals attending and
organisational affiliation, as well as the issues discussed;
- all minutes and other reports of these meetings and/or calls;
- all documents prepared for the purpose of the meetings issued both in preparation and
after the meetings took place.
- all correspondence, including attachments (i.e. any emails, mail correspondence or
telephone call notes) between the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry,
Entrepreneurship and SMEs, including any Cabinet Members and/or officials, and any
lobby group and/or industry representative discussing “PFAS” and/or “C6O4” and/or
“PFOA” and/or “GenX”.”
We have identified 41 documents falling in the scope of your request. Please see the
details in the attached document register.
Please note that since some of the documents listed in the attached document register also
originate from a third party, the originators have been consulted.
We would like to inform you that the documents originating from third parties listed in
the annex to document 19 are not readable and could not be retrieved, with the exception
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
of the first document originating from ANIE Federazione, which is listed as document 20
in the attached document register.
Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, we have come to the conclusion that:
- Documents 7, 28, 38 and 40, listed in the attached document register, can be fully
disclosed.
- Document 34, listed in the attached document register, can be fully disclosed as it
is publicly available.
-
Documents 8, 10 and 36, listed in the attached document register, may be partially
disclosed. The third parties concerned have been consulted and they informed the
Commission that these documents contain sensitive commercial information which
if disclosed could be detrimental for their company. Consequently, some parts of the
documents have been blanked out as their disclosure is prevented by exception to
the right of access laid down in Article 4(2) first indent of this Regulation. The
exceptions laid down in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 apply unless
there is an overriding public interest in disclosure of the documents. We have
examined whether there could be an overriding public interest in disclosure, but we
have not been able to identify such an interest.
Furthermore, please note that some parts of the documents 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 36, 37, 39
and 41 contain personal data, which have been redacted.
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 it contains the following personal data: the
names/initials and contact information of staff members not pertaining to the senior
management.
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 do you 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 (EC) No
1049/2001, access cannot be granted to the personal data contained in the requested
document, 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.
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.
2
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 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-sign)
Kerstin Jorna
Encl.: Document register
41 documents (partially) disclosed
3
Electronically signed on 07/10/2021 17:02 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482