Ref. Ares(2022)8883227 - 21/12/2022
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS, CONTENT AND
TECHNOLOGY
The Director-General
Brussels, 21st December 2022
CNECT.R.4
Tomas Rudl
netzpolitik.org e.V.
Schönhauser Allee 6-7
10119 Berlin
Germany
Via email: ask+request-11956-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your request for access to document –EASE 2022/5802
Dear Mr Rudl,
We refer to your email of 10 October 2022 wherein you make a request for access to
documents pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of the European Parliament and of
the Council of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council
and Commission documents (hereinafter ‘Regulation (CE) No 1049/2001’), which was
registered on 12 October 2022 under the reference number indicated in the subject of this
letter.
1. SCOPE OF YOUR APPLICATION
Your request reads as follows:
“(..)All documentation (including but not limited to all email correspondence,
attendance lists, agendas, background papers, transcripts, recordings and
minutes/notes) relating to the meeting between Filomena Chirico and
Bundesverband Breitbandkommunikation e.V. (Breko) on 07. 06. 2022.(..)”.
2. DOCUMENTS FALLING WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE REQUEST
The following document has been identified as falling within the scope of your request:
-BTO, Meeting with BREKO, CAB Breton, ARES(2022)4983926,
(“Document 1”)
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË - Tel. +32 22991111
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
3.ASSESSMENT UNDER REGULATION 1049/2001
Following an examination of the identified document under the provisions of Regulation
1049/2001 and taking into account the opinion of the third party, we regret to inform you
that access cannot be granted to Document 1, as its disclosure is prevented by exceptions
to the right of access laid down in Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001.
(i) Protection of commercial interests
The first indent of Article 4(2) of Regulation 1049/2001 provides that
“the institutions
shall refuse access to a document where 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”.
This provision must be interpreted in light of Article 339 of the Treaty of the Functioning
of the European Union (TFEU), which requires staff members of the EU institutions to
refrain from disclosing information of the kind covered by the obligation of professional
secrecy, in particular information about undertakings, their business relations or their cost
components.
Document 1 contains sensitive information, views and positions related to commercial
interests of the legal entity concerned. The disclosure of these parts would harm
commercial interests of the legal entity. There is a real and non-hypothetical risk that
disclosure of these parts of the above-mentioned documents could undermine and
seriously affect the commercial interests of the company at question. Therefore, access to
Document 1 cannot be granted as the disclosure is prevented by the exception to the right
of access referred to above.
(ii) Protection of privacy and integrity of individuals The disclosure of Document 1 is also prevented by the exception concerning the
protection of privacy and integrity of the individual outlined in Article 4(1)(b) Regulation
1049/2001, since they contain the following personal data:
the names and functions of Commission staff members not pertaining to senior
management;
Names, functions and signatures of other natural persons.
Article 9(1)(b) of the Data Protection Regulation1 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.
1 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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Consequently, we conclude that, pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) Regulation 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. PARTIAL ACCESS
We have considered whether partial access could be granted to the document identified to
which access is refused. However, partial access is not possible considering that the
document identified is covered in its entirety by the abovementioned exceptions of
Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001.
5. OVERRIDING INTEREST IN DISCLOSURE The exceptions laid down in Article 4(2) of Regulation 1049/2001 apply, unless there is
an overriding public interest in the disclosure of the document identified. Such an interest
must, firstly, be a public interest and, secondly, outweigh the harm caused by disclosure.
We have examined whether there could be an overriding public interest in the disclosure
of the aforementioned parts of the document which are being withheld but we have not
been able to identify such an interest
6. CONFIRMATORY APPLICATION 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 Secretariat-General of the Commission
by asking for a review via your
portal2 account (available only for initial requests submitted via the portal account), or via
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 t
o: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours faithfully,
Electronically signed
Roberto Viola
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https://www.ec.europa.eu/transparency/documents-request
Electronically signed on 20/12/2022 13:11 (UTC+01) in accordance with Article 11 of Commission Decision (EU) 2021/2121
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