State aid bulk data for Poland, Spain, and Romania
Dear Competition,
Under EU Commision Regulation No 651/2014 Article 9 and Annex III Member States shall organise their comprehensive State aid websites, on which the information laid down in Article 9(1) is to be published, in such a way as to allow easy access to the information. Information shall be published in a spreadsheet data format, which allows data to be searched, extracted and easily published on the internet, for instance in CSV
or XML format. Access to the website shall be allowed to any interested party without restrictions. No prior user registration shall be required to access the website.
While most European countries post their state aid data in the central data, Poland, Spain and Romania do not. They instead keep a separate national database. I have requested these countries separately for a bulk download of their state aid data containing all the information required under Annex III of the regulation above. None of them have responded.
I am therefore requesting that you send me a CSV or Excel file for the state aid given by Poland, Spain, and Romania with a row for each state aid grant made under these provisions from 2016 to now for and with a column for each published attribute of the grant (size, date, recipient etc). Please include both state aid related and unrelated to Covid-19.
Yours faithfully,
Hugo
Dear Competition,
Besides the request for the data for Spain, Romania, and Poland above, I would like to make the same request for Slovenia, for which state aid data is also not available in the central EU registry.
Yours faithfully,
Hugo
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are writing to you concerning your request for access to documents sent
on 20/07/2024 and registered on 22/07/2024 under case number 2024/3919.
Since you have not indicated your postal address, we are not able to start
handling your request. The 15 working days to reply to your request will
start running only when you send us your postal address.
You can send your postal address by replying to this e-mail. If we do not
receive your reply we may close this case.
Please note that you can submit a request for access to Commission
documents via the portal [1]'Request a Commission document', which does
not require you to indicate your postal address.
Why do we need your personal postal address?
Since 1 April 2014, the submission of a postal address became a mandatory
feature when submitting an application for access to Commission documents
via an e-mail. We would like to explain why we need your postal address in
order to register and handle your application for access to documents when
submitted via e-mail:
• Firstly, to obtain legal certainty as regards the date you received
the European Commission reply to your application for public access to
documents. Article 297 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the
European Union (TFEU) states that 'decisions which specify to whom
they are addressed, shall be notified to those to whom they are
addressed and shall take effect upon such notification.' In line with
this provision, if the Commission does not grant full access to the
requested documents, it notifies the reply to the applicant via
registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt or via delivery
service. This requires an indication of a valid postal address by the
applicant;
• Secondly, to apply correctly the [2]Data Protection Regulation (EU)
2018/1725. Knowing whether the applicant is an EU resident (or not) is
necessary for deciding which conditions shall apply for the
transmissions of personal data to applicants for access to documents.
These conditions are not the same for recipients established in the
Union and for recipients in third countries. As the vast majority of
the documents requested contain personal data, the Commission cannot
ensure the correct application of the data protection rules in the
absence of a postal address;
• Thirdly, to apply correctly [3]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. Article
4(1)(b) of that Regulation refers to the protection of the privacy and
integrity of the individual and has to be applied in line with the
Data Protection Regulation;
• Fourthly, to protect the interest of other citizens and safeguard the
principle of good administration. The Commission has to treat all
citizens equally by ensuring that the legal framework for public
access to documents is respected. For example, it has to verify
whether Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 is being evaded
by introducing several requests under different identities. Indeed, in
its Ryanair judgment ([4]EU:T:2010:511), the General Court confirmed
that Article 6(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 cannot be evaded by
splitting an application into several, seemingly separate, parts. In
addition, the Commission has to make sure that the legal framework is
respected and the right of access to documents is not abused by making
requests under an invented identity.
The considerations above show that the request for and the consequent
processing of the applicant's postal address is not only appropriate, but
also strictly necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the
public interest within the meaning of Article 5(1)(a) of Data Protection
Regulation, namely providing a smooth and effective access to documents.
Yours faithfully,
Directorate-General for Competition - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://www.ec.europa.eu/transparency/do...
2. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
3. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
4. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Competition,
My postal address is:
[Personally Identifiable Information removed]
[Personally Identifiable Information removed]
[Personally Identifiable Information removed]
Yours faithfully,
Hugo
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 20/07/2024 and registered on 22/07/2024 under the case number
2024/3919.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 12/08/2024. We will let you know
if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working days.
To find more information on how we process your personal data, please see
[1]the privacy statement.
Yours faithfully,
Directorate-General for Competition - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Hugo,
To date, 23 Member States use the TAM, and Iceland. On the contrary, four
Member States use their own national transparency registers. These are:
- Poland: [1]https://sudop.uokik.gov.pl/home
- Romania:
[2]https://regas.consiliulconcurentei.ro/tr...
- Spain: [3]http://www.infosubvenciones.es/bdnstrans...
- Slovenia: [4]https://www.gov.si/teme/objava-vecjih-pr...
The Transparency information of these Member States is shared through
their national databases, not through the Commission's tool, the
Transparency Award Module (TAM).
We are therefore not able to provide you with a full extract of the data.
Best regards,
COMP A3 Secretariat
European Commission
DG COMPETITION
Unit A3 – State aid case support and policy
Building MADO/21-60
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Competition website: [5]http://ec.europa.eu/competition
DISCLAIMER
"The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any
circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the European
Commission."