Ref. Ares(2021)6388436 - 19/10/2021
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY
The Director General
Brussels,
SANTE/E2/(2021)6657974
By registered mail with
acknowledgment of receipt1
Ms Francesca Cicculli
Via Fosso dell'Acqua Mariana 23
IT- 00118 Roma
Advanced copy by e-mail:
ask+request-9858-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Ms Cicculli,
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem 2021/5112
We refer to your email dated 17 August 2021 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 20 August under the reference number GestDem 2021/5112.
We also refer to our holding reply dated 10 September in which we prolong the deadline
to 1 October.
1. Scope of your request
In your request, you ask on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/20012 access to
documents which contain the following information for the period between 1 January
2017 to date:
“A list of all lobby and industry meetings and/or calls held by the Directorate-
General for Health & Food Safety, including any Cabinet Members and/or
officials, during which “PFAS” and/or “C604” and/or “PFOA” and/or “GenX”
were discussed.
The list should include: date, individuals attending and organisational affiliation,
as well as the issues discussed;
−
all minutes and other reports of these meetings and/or calls;
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According to standard operational procedure, the reply is usually also sent to you by registered post.
Please note, however, that due to the extraordinary health and security measures currently in force
during to the COVID-19 epidemics, which include the requirement for all Commission non-critical
staff to telework, we are unfortunately not in a position to follow this procedure until further notice.
We would therefore appreciate if you could confirm receipt of the present e-mail by replying to
sante-
xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
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Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and
Commission documents (OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43).
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
−
all documents prepared for the purpose of the meetings issued both in
preparation and after the meetings took place.
−
all correspondence, including attachments (i.e. any emails, mail
correspondence or telephone call notes) between the Directorate-General
for Health & Food Safety, including any Cabinet Members and/or
officials, and any lobby group and/or industry representative discussing
“PFAS” and/or “C6O4” and/or “PFOA” and/or “GenX”.”
2. Identification and assessment of the relevant documents
We have identified 45 documents that fall within the scope of your request.
The Annex to this letter contains a list of the identified documents and a summary of the
outcome of the assessment carried out on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Since most of the documents originate from a third party, the originators of the
documents have been consulted, in accordance with Article 4(4) of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001, to assess whether an exception under Article 4 of this Regulation is
applicable to the identified documents.
Having examined these documents under the provisions of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 and considered the opinion of the third party, we came to the conclusion
that:
Full access can be given to:
o document No 12.
Partial access can be given to:
o documents No 1, 2, 3 – 11, 13 – 31 and Annex 3 to document No 2 as
their full disclosure is prevented by one of the exceptions to the right of
access laid down in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
No access can be granted to:
o Annexes 2, 4 – 10 to document No 2: articles from scientific journals of
which the Commission received a copy in Annex to document 2. These
articles, which are available online, are subject to copyright limitations.
Their disclosure is therefore prevented by one of the exceptions to the
right of access laid down in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Please note that we provided in the list the references which should enable
you to retrieve these documents from their publishers.
Please find enclosed the full version of document No 12. You will also find enclosed
documents No 1, 2, 3 – 11, 13 – 31 and Annex 3 to document No 2, redacted of the
parts which cannot be disclosed as they are covered by one of the exceptions to the right
of access laid down in Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
With regards to documents No 7, 8, 10 and 29, only matters within the scope of your
request have been disclosed. Parts falling outside the scope of the request have been
redacted and labelled “out of scope”.
Please note that the documents which originate from third parties, or contain documents
and conversations from third parties, are disclosed for information only and cannot be re-
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used without the agreement of the originator. They do not reflect the position of the
Commission and cannot be quoted as such.
You may reuse public documents, which have been produced by the European Commission
or by public and private entities on its behalf based on the
Commission Decision on the
reuse of Commission documents. You may reuse the documents disclosed free of charge
and for non-commercial and commercial purposes provided that the source is acknowledged
and that you do not distort the original meaning or message of the documents. Please note
that the Commission does not assume liability stemming from the reuse.
3. Reasons for partial refusal
Protection of the privacy and integrity of the individual, in particular in accordance with
Community legislation regarding the protection of personal data - Article 4(1)(b) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
Documents 1, 2, 3 – 11 and 13 – 31, and annex 3 to document No 2 contain one or more
of the following:
− the names and contact details of natural persons;
− handwritten signatures of natural persons;
− other information pertaining to an identified or identifiable natural person, such as
titles and functions.
Article 9(l)(b) of the Data Protection Regulation3 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 argument to establish the necessity to have the data transmitted for a specific
purpose in the public interest.
Consequently, we 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 requested
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.
4. Reasons for full refusal
Protection of the commercial interests of a natural or legal person, including
intellectual property - Article 4(2), first indent, of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001
No access can be granted to Annexes 2 and 4 – 10 to document No 2.
These documents originate from third parties, and their disclosure would undermine the
protection of their commercial interests in relation to intellectual property rights. These
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, 21.11.2018, p. 39).
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documents concern scientific journal articles which were provided to the Commission in
the annexes to document No 2, and which are subject to copyright protection. These
documents are available in the public domain upon request from their originator and their
release would infringe the intellectual property rights of their respective publishers. The
full references to these documents are provided in the list of documents.
We have considered whether partial access could be granted to these documents.
However, we have come to the conclusion that the documents are entirely covered by the
above exception to the right of access to documents.
5. Overriding public interest
The exceptions to the right of access provided for in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 must be waived if there is an overriding public interest in disclosing the
requested document. In your application, you did not submit any grounds concerning a
public interest on the basis of which the interests protected in Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 would have to be overridden, and we could not identify any such ground
either. In these circumstances, we have to conclude that there is no evidence of an
overriding public interest in disclosure, in the sense of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.
6. Means of redress
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 Secretary-General of the Commission at the following address:
European Commission
Secretary-General
Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents (SG.C.l)
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Brussels
or by email to:
xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
[e-signed]
Sandra GALLINA
Enclosures:
List of documents and disclosed documents
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Electronically signed on 18/10/2021 21:02 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482