Ref. Ares(2019)5036797 - 01/08/2019
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL COMMUNICATION
Director-General
Brussels,
By registered letter with
acknowledgment of receipt
Ms Luisa Izuzquiza
Corporate Europe Observatory
Rue d’Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels
Advance copy by e-mail: ask+request-7152-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2019/4194
Dear Ms Izuzquiza,
I refer to your e-mail dated 18 July 2019, in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 19 July 2019 under the above-mentioned reference number.
You request access to
1. All correspondence – including, but not limited to, letters, e-mails, and any
attachments – to and from Margaritis Schinas, for the period 1 June 2016 to 31
December 2016, mentioning or regarding José Manuel Barroso and/or Goldman Sachs.
2. All correspondence – including, but not limited to, letters, e-mails, and any
attachments – to and from Margaritis Schinas, for the period 1 February 2018 to 31 July
2018, mentioning or regarding José Manuel Barroso and/or Goldman Sachs and/or
Vice-president Jyrki Katainen.
3. All correspondence – including, but not limited to, letters, e-mails, and any
attachments – to and from Margaritis Schinas, for the period 1 June 2016 to 30
September 2016, mentioning or regarding Commissioner Günther Oettinger.
4. All correspondence – including, but not limited to, letters, e-mails, and any
attachments – to and from Margaritis Schinas, for the period 1 February 2018 to 28
February 2019, mentioning or regarding Martin Selmayr.
As regards points 2, 3 and 4 above, I regret to inform you that we do not hold any
documents that correspond to the description given in your application.
Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1000 Brussel - Belgium. Telephone: +32 2 299 11 11
Office: LOI 56 06/007. Telephone: direct line +32 2 295 30 70
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/communication
As regards point 1 above, the following documents have been identified:
1. E-mail from M. Schinas to COMM SPP MIDDAY PLANNING from 25 July 2016
2. Exchange of mail between M. Schinas and a journalist from 11 September 2016
3. Exchange of mail between M. Schinas and a journalist from 27 September 2016
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 they
may be partially disclosed. Some parts of the documents have been blanked out as their
disclosure is prevented by exceptions to the right of access laid down in Article 4 of this
Regulation.
The three documents to which you request access contain personal data, in particular the
names, function and e-mail addresses of persons who do not form part of the senior
management of the European Commission and of journalists, and document number 3 also
contains, in particular, the name and address of a media company.
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 European Union 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 on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001
and Decision No 1247/2002/EC1 (‘Regulation 2018/1725’).
Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 provides that personal data ‘means any
information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person […]’. The Court of
Justice has specified that
any information, which by reason of its content, purpose or effect,
is linked to a particular person is to be considered as personal data.2
Please note in this respect that the names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and/or
initials pertaining to staff members of an institution are to be considered personal data.3
In its judgment in Case C-28/08 P (
Bavarian Lager)4, the Court of Justice ruled that when a
request is made for access to documents containing personal data, the Data Protection
Regulation becomes fully applicable.5
1 Official Journal L 205 of 21.11.2018, p. 39.
2 Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 20 December 2017 in C
ase C-434/16, Peter
Nowak v Data Protection Commissioner, request for a preliminary ruling, paragraphs 33-35,
ECLI:EU:C:2017:994.
3 Judgment of the General Court of 19 September 2018 in cas
e T-39/17, Port de Brest v Commission,
paragraphs 43-44,
ECLI:EU:T:2018:560.
4 Judgment of 29 June 2010 in Case C-28/08 P,
European Commission v The Bavarian Lager Co. Ltd,
EU:C:2010:378, paragraph 59.
2
Pursuant to Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, ‘personal data shall only be
transmitted to recipients established in the Union other than Union institutions and bodies if
‘[t]he recipient establishes that it is necessary to have the data transmitted for a specific
purpose in the public interest and the controller, where there is any reason to assume that the
data subject’s legitimate interests might be prejudiced, establishes that it is proportionate to
transmit the personal data for that specific purpose after having demonstrably weighed the
various competing interests’.
Only if these conditions are fulfilled and the processing constitutes lawful processing in
accordance with the requirements of Article 5 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, can the
transmission of personal data occur.
According to Article 9(1)(b) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, the European Commission has
to examine the further conditions for the lawful processing of personal data only if the first
condition is fulfilled, namely if the recipient has established that it is necessary to have the
data transmitted for a specific purpose in the public interest. It is only in this case that the
European Commission has to examine whether there is a reason to assume that the data
subject’s legitimate interests might be prejudiced and, in the affirmative, establish the
proportionality of the transmission of the personal data for that specific purpose after having
demonstrably weighed the various competing interests.
In your request, you do not put forward any arguments to establish the necessity to have the
data transmitted for a specific purpose in the public interest. Therefore, the European
Commission does not have to examine whether there is a reason to assume that the data
subject’s legitimate interests might be prejudiced.
Notwithstanding the above, please note that 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.
Consequently, I conclude that, pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001, access cannot be granted to the personal data, 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.
Moreover, pursuant to Article 4(2) first indent of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, access
to a document has to be refused if its disclosure would undermine the protection of
commercial interests of a natural or legal person, including intellectual property, unless
there is an overriding public interest in disclosure.
Disclosure in full of document number 3 would undermine the protection of the commercial
interests - in particular the name and address - of the media company with which the
Commission was dealing. Therefore, the exception laid down in Article 4(2), first indent
of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 applies to this document.
5 Whereas this judgment specifically related to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament
and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing
of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data, the
principles set out therein are also applicable under the new data protection regime established by
Regulation 2018/1725.
3
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.
Having carefully examined your request in the light of Article 4(2) of Regulation (EC)
No 1049/2001, I have not been able to identify in this particular case the existence of an
overriding public interest that could justify the disclosure of these parts of the document.
In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) N° 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 Secretariat-General of the Commission at the following address:
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents (SG.C.1)
BERL 7/076
B-1049 Brussels
or by email to:
xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen
Annexes: 3 documents partially released
4
Electronically signed on 31/07/2019 17:49 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563
