Ref. Ares(2022)657924 - 28/01/2022
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
CLIMATE ACTION
The Director General
Brussels,
Belen Balanya
Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d‘Edimbourg 26,
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Advance copy by email:
ask+request-10352-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your applications for access to documents – GestDem 2021/8001 –
2021/8008 – 2021/8014
Dear Ms Balanya,
We refer to your e-mails dated 8 December 2021 in which you make three requests for
access to documents, registered on 9 December 2021 under the above-mentioned
reference numbers.
You requested access to the following documents:
1)
All correspondence (including email, texts and WhatsApp) since 1st July 2021
between Commissioner Timmermans, Commissioner Breton, President van der
Leyen, and/or their cabinets and/or officials from DG Clima, DG Grow and/or
Secretariat General on one hand and representatives from Hydrogen Europe,
Eurogas, Gas 4 Climate (and members), the International Association of Oil &
Gas Producers (IOGP), FuelsEurope, the European Net Zero Alliance (ENZA),
FTI Consulting, ENTSO-G, Zero Emissions Platform, and/or the Global CCS
Institute in which the "Hydrogen and decarbonised gas package", was
addressed.
2)
All correspondence (including email) since 1st January 2021 between
Commissioner Simson, Commissioner Timmermans, Commissioner Breton,
President van der Leyen, and/or their cabinets and/or officials from DG Energy,
DG Clima, DG Grow and/or Secretariat General on one hand and any
stakeholder on the other, in which the “EU Neighbourhoods”, as mentioned in
the European Clean Hydrogen Strategy, were addressed.
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
3)
All correspondence (including email) since 1st January 2021 between
Commissioner Simson, Commissioner Timmermans, Commissioner Breton,
President van der Leyen, and/or their cabinets and/or officials from DG Energy,
DG Clima, DG Grow and/or Secretariat General on one hand and
representatives from Dii Desert Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance and/or
Royal Vopak on the other, in which hydrogen was discussed.
4)
List of meetings since 1st July 2021 between Commissioner Timmermans,
Commissioner Breton, President van der Leyen, and/or their cabinets and/or
officials from DG Clima, DG Grow and/or Secretariat General on one hand and
representatives from Hydrogen Europe, Eurogas, Gas 4 Climate (and members),
the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP), FuelsEurope, the
European Net Zero Alliance (ENZA), FTI Consulting, ENTSO-G, Zero Emissions
Platform, and/or the Global CCS Institute in which the "Hydrogen and
decarbonised gas package" was addressed.
5)
List of meetings since 1st January 2021 between Commissioner Simson,
Commissioner Timmermans, Commissioner Breton, President van der Leyen,
and/or their cabinets and/or officials from DG Energy, DG Clima, DG Grow
and/or Secretariat General on one hand and any stakeholder on the other, in
which the “EU Neighbourhoods”, as mentioned in the European Clean Hydrogen
Strategy, were addressed
6)
List of meetings since 1st January 2021 between Commissioner Simson,
Commissioner Timmermans, Commissioner Breton, President van der Leyen,
and/or their cabinets and/or officials from DG Energy, DG Clima, DG Grow
and/or Secretariat General on one hand and representatives from Dii Desert
Energy, the MENA Hydrogen Alliance and/or Royal Vopak on the other, in which
hydrogen was discussed.
7)
Minutes of the meetings mentioned above”.
Your applications for access to documents cover topics falling under the responsibility of
different Commission services. In that regard, your requests were split into separate
requests, whereby each part is attributed to the respective Commission service under a
separate Gestdem reference number. Each service provides its own, separate reply, which
relates only to the documents originating or received by that service. In this regard, this
reply corresponds only to the documents held by the Directorate General for Climate
Action.
We regret to inform you that DG CLIMA does not hold any documents that would
correspond to the description given in your application.
As specified in Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the right of access as
defined in that regulation applies only to existing documents in the possession of the
institution.
Given that no such documents, corresponding to the description given in your
application, are held by my service, DG CLIMA is not in a position to fulfil your request.
2
As regards points 4, 5 and 6 of your requests, please note that the list of meetings of the
Director-General of Directorate-General for Climate Action with organisations and self-
employed individuals is available in the link enclosed below:
http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiative/meetings/meeting.do?host=d41e42be-7ff1-4635-
bb4f-e47d38f886ed
In your application you requested access to a list of meetings of the staff of the
Directorate-General for Climate Action. Please note that the officials of the European
Commission having the status of Director-General shall make public information on all
meetings held by them with organisations or self-employed individuals on issues relating
to policy-making and implementation in the Union in accordance with the Commission
Decision 2104/838/EU, Euratom of 25 November 20141. However, the same obligation
does not apply to lower-ranking officials, such as the remaining members of the
Directorate-General for Climate Action.
As specified in Article 2(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the right of access as
defined in that regulation applies only to existing documents in the possession of the
institution, that is to say, documents drawn up or received by it and in its possession, in
all areas of activity of the European Union.
The Court of Justice held that ‘the right of access to documents of the institutions applies
only to existing documents in the possession of the institution concerned and […]
Regulation No 1049/2001 may not be relied upon to oblige an institution to create a
document which does not exist. It follows that, […], an application for access that would
require the Commission to create a new document, even if that document were based on
information already appearing in existing documents held by it, falls outside the
framework of Regulation No 1049/2001’2.
In the present case, the Directorate-General for Climate Action does not hold any list of
all meetings of its staff with the specific organisation concerned by your request in
addition to the publicly available information on meetings of the Director-General, which
is accessible via the abovementioned link. In this respect, I would like to confirm that
compiling such a list in order to fulfil your request would equal to the creation of a new
document, as neither can such a list be extracted from a database by means of a normal or
routine search.
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
1 OJ L 343, 28.11.2014, p. 19–21
2 Judgment of the Court of Justice of 11 January 2017,
Typke v
European Commission, C-491/15 P,
EU:C:2017:5, paragraph 31.
3
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,
Mauro PETRICCIONE
Director-General
4
Electronically signed on 27/01/2022 18:23 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482