Ref. Ares(2021)5598879 - 13/09/2021
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
CLIMATE ACTION
Legal Affairs, Inter-Institutional Relations & Communication
Brussels
Belen Balanya
Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d’Edimbourg 26,
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2021/3564
Dear Ms Balanya,
We refer to your e-mail dated 31 May 2021 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 1 June 2021 under the above-mentioned reference number.
You requested access to:
“
1- all correspondence (including email) between 1st january 2021 and 31st May 2021
between Commissioner Timmermans, President van der Leyen, and/or their cabinets
and/or officials from DG Clima and Secretariat General on one hand and
representatives of Concawe/FuelsEurope, IOGP (International Association of Oil & Gas
Producers, Eurogas, Cefic (European Chemical Industry Council), Business Europe,
ERT (European Roundtable of Industrialists), IETA (International Emissions Trading
Association), Hydrogen Europe, CEPS, Eurogas, Kangaroo Group, American Chamber
of Commerce, British Chamber of Commerce | EU & Belgium (Britcham), ZEP Zero
Emissions Platform , European Energy Forum, Friends of Europe, Bruegel,
International Chamber of Commerce, Global Oil and Gas Industry Association for
Environmental and Social Issues (IPIECA), Oil Council, World Petroleum Council
and/or Confindustria on the other, where the issues of COP26 was addressed.
2 - list of meetings/videocalls/calls between between 1st january 2021 and 31st May
2021 between Commissioner Timmermans, President van der Leyen, and/or their
cabinets and/or officials from DG Clima and Secretariat General on one hand and
representatives of Concawe/FuelsEurope, IOGP (International Association of Oil & Gas
Producers, Eurogas, Cefic (European Chemical Industry Council), Business Europe,
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
ERT (European Roundtable of Industrialists), IETA (International Emissions Trading
Association), Hydrogen Europe, CEPS, Eurogas, Kangaroo Group, American Chamber
of Commerce, British Chamber of Commerce | EU & Belgium (Britcham), ZEP Zero
Emissions Platform , European Energy Forum, Friends of Europe, Bruegel,
International Chamber of Commerce, Global Oil and Gas Industry Association for
Environmental and Social Issues (IPIECA), Oil Council, World Petroleum Council
and/or Confindustria on the other, where the issues of COP26 was addressed.
3 - minutes of the meetings/videocalls/calls mentioned above”.
Your submitted application for access to documents covers topics falling under the
responsibility of different Commission services. In that regard, your request has been
split to the separate requests, whereby each part is attributed to the respective
Commission service under a separate Gestdem reference number. Each Director-General
service provides its own, separate reply which relates only to the documents held by that
service or responsible Cabinet. In this regard, this request correspond to the documents
held by the Directorate General for Climate Action and the Cabinet of the Executive
Vice-President Timmermans.
DG CLIMA has identified several documents that fall under scope of the request, which are
annexed to this letter.
Following an examination of the documents under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001, I regret to inform you that a complete disclosure of the documents 2, 3, 5, 6, 8-
15, 17-24, 26-34, 36-49 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: names of Commission staff members not pertaining to the
senior management; names and contact details of other natural persons and other
information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
Article 9(1)(b) of the Data Protection Regulation 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
any 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 above-mentioned
documents, 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.
As regards point ii), please note that the list of meetings of the Executive Vice-President
Timmermans, his Cabinet and the meetings of the Director-General of DG CLIMA with
organisations and self-employed individuals are available in the links enclosed below:
http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiative/meetings/meeting.do?host=d41e42be-7ff1-4635-
bb4f-e47d38f886ed
2
http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiative/meetings/meeting.do?host=f1afd532-0d40-
4dcd-8e45-667b57075377 http://ec.europa.eu/transparencyinitiative/meetings/meeting.do?host=ec1ecb7e-2615-
44eb-895b-6b08637c2a0d
In case you would disagree with this position, you are entitled, in accordance with Article
7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, to submit 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
Unit C.1. ‘Transparency, Document Management and Access to Documents’
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Brussels, or by email to:
xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
(e-signed)
Luca DE CARLI
3
Electronically signed on 02/09/2021 12:27 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482
