PUBLIC REGISTER
Alicante, March 15, 2019
Ref.04/2019DIN: 0075139914
Ms. Luisa Izuzquiza
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Access to Documents- Ref 04/2019
Dear Ms. Izuzquiza,
We refer to your application of 07-03-2019 pursuant to Regulation No.1049/2019
regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission
documents.
You have requested the following:
For the period between 26 April 2018 to date:
- a list of all lobby meetings held by this agency with Facebook or its intermediaries.
The list should include: date, individuals attending and organisational affiliation, as
well as the issues discussed;
- all minutes and other reports of these meetings;
- all correspondence, including attachments (i.e. any emails, correspondence or
telephone call notes) between this agency (including the Director and the Cabinet)
and Facebook or any intermediaries representing its interests; and
- all documents prepared for the purpose of the meeting and/or exchanged during
the course of the meeting.
The response by the EUIPO is as follows:
The EUIPO does not hold any documents that correspond to the scope of your
request, concerning lobbying meetings with Facebook or its representatives, or
related documents, since no lobbying meetings have taken place.
Avenida de Europa, 4 • E - 03008 • Alicante, Spain
Tel. +34 965139100 • www
.euipo.europa.eu
PUBLIC REGISTER
What EUIPO can provide you in response to your request are email messages sent
by EUIPO to a person working for Facebook but they have only been addressed to
him in his personal capacity as expert and are standard circular emails to members
of the expert groups. The person in question has been selected in his personal
capacity to be part of a newly created expert group of the Observatory, more
specifically the “Expert group on Cooperation with Intermediaries”.
The role of the Observatory is to bring together all relevant stakeholders and this
expert group will, among other things, deal with IP infringement on social media. As
stated in the Terms of Reference for Observatory Expert Groups, which we also
enclosed,
“Experts wil represent themselves and not a particular organisation nor institution”.
In addition, as you will also find on the terms of reference enclosed, the summary of
these meetings and the list of participants will be made public in the EUIPO website.
Disclosure of personal documents or individual information is rejected as this is
protected under Article 4(2), first indent of Regulation 1049/2001 where it stipulates
protection which undermines the protection of […] privacy and the integrity of the
individual, in particular in accordance with Community legislation regarding the
protection of personal data.
The applicable legislation in this field is 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 the free movement of such data, and repealing
Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC (Regulation
2018/1725).
As stated previously as the persons involved are not acting on any official capacity
there are reasons to assume that the legitimate interests of the data subjects
concerned would be prejudiced by disclosure of the personal data reflected in the
documents, as there is a real and non-hypothetical risk that such public disclosure
would harm their privacy and subject them to unsolicited external contacts. (AskEU
is a third party website).
In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001, you are entitled to make a
confirmatory application requesting the EUIPO to review this position.
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days upon
receipt of this letter to the Executive Director at the following e-mail:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxxxxx.xx
Avenida de Europa, 4 • E - 03008 • Alicante, Spain
Tel. +34 965139100 • www
.euipo.europa.eu
PUBLIC REGISTER
Yours sincerely,
Julie Miller Holmer
EUIPO Public Register
Avenida de Europa, 4 • E - 03008 • Alicante, Spain
Tel. +34 965139100 • www
.euipo.europa.eu
