Ref. Ares(2023)2104759 - 23/03/2023
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL JUSTICE and CONSUMERS
The Director General
Brussels, 23/03/2023
JUST.C3 (2023)2952575
Dr Johnny Ryan
Irish Council for Civil Liberties
Unit 11
First Floor
34, Usher's Quay
Dublin 8
D08 DCW9
Ireland
E-mail:ask+request-12403-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Your application for access to documents – EASE 2023/0135
Dear Sir,
We refer to your request for access to documents, registered on 9 January 2023 under the
above mentioned reference number.
You request access to documents held by Commissioner Reynders, his cabinet, and DG
Just, concerning the Irish Data Protection Commission and Ireland’s application of the
GDPR, produced or received from 14 August 2022 to 9 January 2023.
Your application concerns the following documents:
No
Name of document
1
Briefing for the Country Visit of Commissioner Reynders of 24-25 November 2022,
BASIS CAB REYNDERS/1560, Ares(2023)703075 (hereafter “document 1”);
2
Mission Report Ireland – Country visit Commissioner Reynders – 24-25 November 2022,
Ares(2023)157373 (hereafter “document 2”).
3
DPC large-scale enquiries – September 2022
4
DPC large-scale enquiries – October 2022
5
DPC large-scale enquiries – December 2022
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
Having examined the documents requested under the provisions of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents, I have come to the conclusion that
documents 1 and 2 may be partially disclosed.
The parts of the two documents that do not directly relate to the subject of your request
have been redacted as being “out of scope”.
With regard to document 1, one part of it has been blanked out as its disclosure is
prevented by the exception to the right of access laid down in the second indent of
Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, which stipulates that “[t]he institutions
shall refuse access to a document where disclosure would undermine the protection of
court proceedings and legal advice [...] unless there is an overriding public interest in
disclosure”.
The relevant undisclosed part of document 1 contains information revealing the position
of the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers in case C-115/221, which is pending
before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Disclosure of that information
at this point in time would unduly interfere with the procedure of the CJEU.
Other parts of document 1 have been blanked out as their disclosure is prevented by the
exception to the right of access laid down in the second subparagraph of Article 4(3) of
Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, which stipulates that “[a]ccess to a document containing
opinions for internal use as part of deliberations and preliminary consultations within the
institution concerned shall be refused even after the decision has been taken if disclosure
of the document would seriously undermine the institution's decision-making process,
unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure”.
The relevant undisclosed parts of document 1 contain opinions for internal use concerning
the subjects in the scope of the visit of Commissioner Reynders of Ireland of 24-
25 November 2022. Disclosure of that information would seriously undermine the
decision-making process of the Commission.
A complete disclosure of document 1 is also 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 the following personal data:
-
the name of an EU staff member.
Article 9(1)(b) of the EU Data Protection Regulation2 does not allow the transmission of
this 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.
1 Request for a preliminary ruling from the Unabhängige Schiedskommission Wien (Austria)
lodged on 17 February 2022, Case C-115/22.
2 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. 39–98.
2
In your request, you do not express any particular interest to have access to this 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 document 1.
Since document 1 contains questions originating from the Ireland’s Data Protection
Commissioner (DPC) concerning the fireside chat between the DPC Helen Dixon and
Commissioner Reynders, the DPC has been consulted. The DPC has not objected to the
disclosure of that part of document 1.
With regard to document 2, since it contains the position of Ireland’s government and the
DPC, they have been consulted.
Ireland’s government has objected to disclosure of one part of document 2 that concerns
Minister Calleary’s bilateral with Commissioner Reynders. Ireland’s government has
motivated its position as follows: it relies on article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
first indent (protection of commercial interests of a legal person), as the relevant
undisclosed part of document 2 relates to the commercially sensitive information which
belongs to a natural or legal person, and it could be harmful to them or to their interests if
it is released. The DPC has not objected to the disclosure of the part of document 2 that
concerns the meeting with DPC Helen Dixon.
Taking into account the opinion of Ireland’s government, I regret to inform you that that
part of document 2 has been blanked out as its disclosure is prevented by the exception to
the right of access laid down in Article 4(2), first indent of the Regulation.
The exceptions laid down in Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 apply unless
there is an overriding public interest in disclosure of the documents. In your request you
have indicated a matter of utmost public interest, referring to the “one-stop-shop”
mechanism in the GDPR and the role of Ireland for the application of the GDPR. I have
examined this alleged overriding public interest, but I have concluded that
it does not
outweigh the harm disclosure would cause to the interests protected by the invoked
exceptions.
Please note that documents 1 and 2 falling under the scope of your request were drawn up
for internal use under the responsibility of the relevant services of the Directorate-General
for Justice and Consumers. It solely reflects the services’ interpretation of the
interventions made and does not set out any official position of the third parties to which
the documents refer. It does not reflect the position of the Commission and cannot be
quoted as such.
Following an examination of documents 3-5 under the provisions of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001 regarding public access to documents and taking into account the opinion of
the DPC, I regret to inform you that your application cannot be granted. In relation to any
references in the documents to ongoing inquiries of the DPC, this information was
provided to the Commission on a strictly confidential basis. The DPC’s view is that this
information ought not to be released in circumstances where it would risk undermining the
protection of the purpose of inspections, investigations and audits, as envisaged by the
exception outlined in Article 4(2) of the Regulation.
3
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.
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 to the Secretariat-General of the
Commission within 15 working days upon receipt of this letter. You can submit it in one
of the following ways:
by asking for a review via your portal3
account (available only for initial requests
submitted via the portal account),
by mail:
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents (SG.C.1)
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Bruxelles
or by email t
o: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx .
Yours faithfully,
Ana Gallego
e-signed
3
https://www.ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-request
4
Electronically signed on 23/03/2023 07:28 (UTC+01) in accordance with Article 11 of Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121
