Ref. Ares(2020)5065948 - 28/09/2020
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME)
Department B - LIFE and H2020 Energy, Environment & Resources
Head of Department
Brussels,
EASME.B/PK/MS/CP/B2.4
Mr Völker
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Your application for access to documents – Ref. Ares(2020)4647913
Dear Mr Völker,
We refer to your e-mail dated 07/09/2020 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on the same day under the above-mentioned reference number.
You are requesting access to “
documents which contain the following information:
- Grant Agreement of Horizon 2020 ID 776811 "MIREU", including any existing
addenda, annexes, or subcontracts”.
You application falls within the scope of Regulation (EC) 1049/20011.
We regret to inform you that EASME does not hold addenda and subcontracts relating to
this project. 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 EASME, we are not in a position to fulfil this part of
your request.
Concerning the remaining of your request, we have identified the following documents:
Grant Agreement-776811-MIREU (EN)
Annex 1 - Description of Action (part A) (EN)
Annex 1 - Description of the action (part B) (EN)
Annex 2 - Estimated budget of the action (EN)
Annex 2a - Additional information on the estimated budget of the action (EN)
Annex 3 - Accession Forms (EN)
Annex 4 - Model for the financial statements (EN)
Annex 5 - Model for the certificate on the financial statements (EN)
Annex 6 - Model for the certificate on the methodology (EN)
Amendment - AMD -776811 – 4 (EN)
1 Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding
public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, Official Journal of the
European Union L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43–48.
Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), 1210 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË
http://ec.europa.eu/easme/
Amendment - AMD - 776811 – 20 (EN)
Since most of the documents concerned originate from the Consortium, it has been
consulted on the possibility to release the documents. The opinion of the Consortium was
that access to their documents should be denied. They considered that the disclosure of the
Grant Agreement and its annexes would undermine the interests of the MIREU project
partners, including intellectual property. In addition, the Consortium highlighted that the
Grant Agreement and its annexes include various personal data that is protected under EU
legislation and the disclosure of which would undermine such protection.
1.
Grant Agreement - core text
The document consists of 82 pages The basis of the Grant Agreement document is the
Horizon 2020 General Model Grant Agreement (Multi-beneficiary model GA), which is
publicly available2.
However, the document also contains personal and commercially sensitive data that cannot
be disclosed.
The document contains
personal information such as names, e-mail addresses and other
personal data of the contact persons of contracting parties. 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.
According to Article 9(1)(b) of the Regulation 2018/17253, personal data should only be
transferred to recipients if they establish the necessity for a specific purpose in the public
interest and if it is proportionate to transmit the personal data for that specific purpose and
without prejudice to the data subject’s legitimate interests. We consider that the necessity of
disclosing the aforementioned personal data has not been established and it cannot be
assumed that such disclosure is proportionate and would not prejudice the legitimate rights
of the persons concerned.
Please note that the exception for Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 1049/2001 has an absolute
character and does not envisage the possibility of demonstrating the existence of an
overriding public interest.
The document also contains commercially sensitive data, such as the bank account of the
project coordinator. The public disclosure of this information would seriously undermine
contracting parties' commercial interests, including security and confidential financial data.
Accordingly, the exception in Article 4(2), first indent, of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
has to be invoked and access to the document has to be refused.
In accordance with Article 4(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, we have considered
the possibility of granting partial access to the document requested. However, for the
2
https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/mga/gga/h2020-mga-gga-multi_en.pdf
3 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 295/39 of 21.11.2018).
2
reasons explained above, no meaningful partial access is possible without undermining
the interest described above
As regards the existence of an overriding public interest in disclosure in relation to the
Article 4(2) first indent on the protection of the commercial interests of the beneficiaries, we
consider that, on balance, the principle of transparency which underlies the Regulation does
not, in the present case, prevail over the above indicated interests so as to justify disclosure
of the documents.
In view of the foregoing and of the negative opinion of the Consortium, we are unable to
grant you access to the core text of the Grant Agreement.
2.
Annex 1 - Description of the action (Parts A and B)
The document consists in 56 pages for Part A and 82 pages for Part B. It contains
personal information such as the names, contact details, CV etc. of staff involved in the
implementation of the project.
As mentioned above, pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 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. We consider that the necessity of disclosing the
aforementioned personal data is not established and it cannot be assumed that such
disclosure would not prejudice the legitimate rights of the persons concerned.
Accordingly, access to the personal data has to be refused.
The document also contains
commercially sensitive information reflecting in detail the
project methodology and intended intellectual property rights that are not in the public
domain. The public disclosure of this information would seriously undermine its
commercial interests, including intellectual property. Accordingly, the exception in
Article 4(2), first indent, of Regulation No 1049/2001 has to be invoked and access to
this part of document has to be refused.
In accordance with Article 4(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, we have considered
the possibility of granting partial access to the document requested. Following a careful
assessment, we can disclose pages 1, 3, 4, and 5 of the Annex 1 of Part A.
As regards the existence of an overriding public interest in disclosure in relation to the
Article 4(2) first indent on the protection of the commercial interests of the beneficiaries,
we have found no elements in this instance which could indicate the existence of such an
overriding public interest in the sense of the Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 that would
outweigh the need to protect the commercial interests of the contracting parties.
In view of the foregoing, we are able to grant you only access to the pages 1, 3, 4 and 5 of
the Annex 1 of Part A.
3
3.
Annex 2 - Estimated budget for the action and Annex 2a - Additional
information on the estimated budget of the action
Annex 2 and Annex 2a of the Grant Agreement provide budget repartition between budget
categories and therefore disclose data on partners’ financial policy.
Disclosure of the documents requested would undermine the protection of the commercial
interests of the beneficiary, as putting such information in the public domain could deter any
future bids from the current beneficiaries of the MIREU Grant Agreement. Accordingly,
the exception in Article 4(2), first indent, of Regulation No 1049/2001 has to be invoked
and access to the documents has to be refused.
In accordance with Article 4(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, we have considered
the possibility of granting partial access to the documents requested. However, for the
reasons explained above, no meaningful partial access is possible without undermining
the interest described above
Therefore, the exception laid down in Article 4(2), first indent of Regulation 1049/2001
applies unless there is an overriding public interest in the disclosure of the requested
documents. We were not able to identify any public interest capable of outweighing the
need to protect the commercial interests, including the intellectual property, identified in the
present letter.
In view of the foregoing and of the negative opinion of the Consortium, we are unable to
grant you access to the Annexes 2 and 2a. However, you can consult the template of these
documents, which are publicly available4.
4.
Annex 3 – Accession Forms
The accession forms are the documents by which the beneficiary demonstrate is
willingness to join the Consortium. They contain personal data such as the name of the
legal representative of the beneficiary.
In accordance with Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation 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.
We consider that the necessity of disclosing the aforementioned personal data is not
established and it cannot be assumed that such disclosure would not prejudice the
legitimate rights of the persons concerned.
In view of the foregoing, we are unable to grant you access to the accession forms.
However,
the
template
is
publicly
available
at
the
following
link:
https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/mga/gga/h2020-mga-gga-
multi_en.pdf
4 Page 117 onwards
: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/mga/gga/h2020-mga-gga-multi_en.pdf
4
5
Annex 4 - Model for the financial statements,
Annex 5 - Model for the certificate on the financial statements and
Annex 6 - Model for the certificate on the methodology.
These three annexes are templates which are publicly available at the following link5:
https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/mga/gga/h2020-mga-gga-
multi_en.pdf
5.
Amendments
The two amendments relate to modifications of the composition of the Consortium and its
impact on the contract implementation which are reflected in Annex 1 on description of the
actions and Annex 2 related to the estimated budget. The second amendment also concerns
the addition of a linked third party.
Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation 1049/2001
regarding public access to documents, we regret to inform you that your application
cannot be granted, as disclosure is prevented by exceptions to the right of access laid
down in Article 4 of this Regulation.
The documents contain
commercially sensitive information reflecting technical and
financial aspects of the project implementation that are not in the public domain.
Taking also into consideration the negative opinion of the Consortium, we consider that
the public disclosure of this information would seriously undermine its commercial
interests, including intellectual property. Accordingly, the exception in Article 4(2), first
indent, of Regulation No 1049/2001 has to be invoked and access to the documents has
to be refused.
In accordance with Article 4(6) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, we have considered
the possibility of granting partial access to the documents requested. However, for the
reasons explained above, no meaningful partial access is possible without undermining
the interest described above.
As regards the existence of an overriding public interest in disclosure in relation to the
Article 4(2) first indent on the protection of the commercial interests of the beneficiaries,
we consider that, on balance, the principle of transparency which underlies the
Regulation does not, in the present case, prevail over the above indicated interests so as
to justify disclosure of the documents.
In view of the foregoing and of the negative opinion of the Consortium, we are unable to
grant you access to the amendments.
In addition, we would like to inform you that the published information on the selected
project is available on the EASME website at the following link:
https://sc5.easme-
web.eu/?p=776811.
5 Page 118 onwards.
5
Moreover, specific information (e.g. budget, objectives, beneficiaries, public deliverables
etc.) on the project is available in CORDIS and on the project specific webpage
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/776811, and the project's website
: https://mireu.eu/.
In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, you are entitled to
make a confirmatory application requesting the Director of EASME to review this
position.
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within
15 working days upon receipt
of this letter to the Director of EASME at the following address:
European Commission
EASME
To the attention of Luisa Prista, Director
COV2 12/134
B-1049 Brussels
or by email to:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
(e-signed)
Patrik Kolar
Head of Department B
Enclosure:
Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement 776811 – MIREU: Description of
Action part A (expunged version)
6
Electronically signed on 28/09/2020 10:11 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482