Travel expenses of EDA Director
Helen Darbishire made this acceso a documentos request to Agencia Europea de Defensa
This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.
Dear European Defence Agency,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am hereby requesting access to the travel expenses of EDA’s Director, for the period 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2018 inclusive.
I am looking for documents that contain, for each of the trips, the following information:
- Place of origin and destination, and the amount spent on travel or transportation;
- Exact dates and duration of the trip;
- Amount spent on accommodation;
- Amount spent on subsistence;
- Other information, such as possible miscellaneous costs.
If the travel was by air taxi and a team of people were travelling, please also provide documents with details on the other travellers (at a minimum, names and job titles).
With respect to personal information contained in any documents that you might have, please note that the only information being sought here is the name of EDA’s Director, something which is already in the public domain. This request does not seek access to any other personal information such as bank account details. Nor am I requesting data such as the office addresses, signatures or telephone numbers of EDA staff members.
Please also note that Access Info made the same request in the past with regard to a different period. You can find it here https://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/trav...
I remain at your disposition to answer any questions or clarifications you might have related to this request.
Thank you in advance.
Yours faithfully,
Helen Darbishire
Access Info Europe
Calle Cava de San Miguel 8, 4C
28005 Madrid, Spain
Dear Ms. Darbishire,
We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents
sent by email dated 05/07/2019 and registered on 09/07/2019 under
reference number 2019/19/IN.
In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, your application
will be handled within 15 working days. The time limit will expire on
26/07/2019. In case this time limit needs to be extended, you will be
informed in due course.
Kindly note that all communication relating to access to document requests
should be sent to the following email [1][email address]
With best regards,
European Defence Agency
Access to Documents
[2][IMG][3][IMG][4][IMG] [email address]
Rue des Drapiers 17-23, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
[5]www.eda.europa.eu/info-hub/eda-
documents/access-to-eda-documents
BY EMAIL ONLY
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref 2019/19/IN
Dear Madam,
We refer to your e-mail dated 05/07/2019 in which you make a request for
access to documents within the framework of Regulation (EC)
1049/2001[1][1]. It was registered on 09/07/2019 under the above mentioned
reference number.
We enclose a two documents providing information on the travel expenses
for Mr. Jorge DOMECQ, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency in
2017 and 2018. The documents detail the information requested, namely:
- Place of origin and destination, and the amount spent on travel or
transportation;
- Exact dates and duration of the trip;
- Amount spent on accommodation;
- Amount spent on subsistence;
- Other information, such as possible miscellaneous costs.
Please note that there was no travel by air taxi.
Lastly, the documents to which you have requested access contain personal
data of Agency staff approving the payments. Pursuant to Article 4(1) (b)
of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, access to a document has to be refused if
its disclosure would undermine the protection of privacy and the integrity
of the individual, in particular in accordance with EU legislation
regarding the protection of personal data.
The applicable legislation in this field is Regulation (EC) No
2018/1725[2][2] 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[3][3] (‘Regulation
2018/1725’). Article 3(1) of Regulation 2018/1725 provides that "personal
data" shall mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable
person. The documents requested contain personal data, namely the name,
surname, email address, phone number, and fax number of staff and Member
State personnel participating in the project. This information clearly
constitutes personal data in the meaning Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.
According to Article 8(b) of Regulation (EC) 45/2001, personal data shall
only be transferred to a recipient in the EU/EEA if the recipient
establishes the necessity of having the data transferred and if there is
no reason to assume that the data subject's legitimate interests might be
prejudiced. Those two conditions are cumulative.[4][4]
We consider that, with the information available, the necessity of
disclosing the aforementioned personal data to you has not been
established and/or that it cannot be assumed that such disclosure would
not prejudice the legitimate rights of the persons concerned. Therefore,
we are disclosing the documents requested expunged from this specific
personal data.
In case you would disagree with the assessment that the expunged data are
personal data which can only be disclosed if such disclosure is legitimate
under the rules of personal data protection, you are entitled, in
accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, to make a
confirmatory application requesting the Chief Executive of the Agency to
review this position.
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days
upon receipt of this email at the following address:
accesstodocuments@[5]eda.europa.eu
Yours faithfully,
European Defence Agency
Access to Documents
[6][IMG][7][IMG][8][IMG]
[9][email address]
Rue des Drapiers 17-23, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
[10]www.eda.europa.eu/info-hub/eda-
documents/access-to-eda-documents