Ref. Ares(2018)3738166 - 13/07/2018
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing
Director
Brussels, 18 June 2018
GROW.F.5/NZ
Ms Margarida da Silva
CEO
Rue d' Edimbourg 26
1050 Brussels
BELGIUM
By registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt
Advance copy by email: ask+request-5493-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject:
Your application for access to documents – Ref GestDem No 2018/2388
Dear Ms Da Silva,
We refer to your e-mail dated 25/04/2018 in which you make a request for access to
documents, registered on 27/04/2018 under the above-mentioned reference number.
You request access to:
- a list of lobby meetings held by DG GROW with Facebook or its intermediaries,
including: date, individuals attending, their organisational affiliation, and the issues
discussed;
- minutes and other reports of these meetings;
- all correspondence (i.e. any emails, correspondence or telephone call notes) between
DG GROW (including the Commissioner and the Cabinet) and Facebook or any
intermediaries representing its interests.
You further clarified by your email of 18/05/2018 addressed to DG HOME that you are
interested in documents from 01/11/2014 onwards.
Thereby, we consider your request to cover documents held up to the date of your initial
application.
Given that you submitted the same request to other Directorates-General of the
Commission as well, this reply relates only to the documents held by DG GROW. You
Commission européenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIË — Tel. +32 22991111
link to page 2 link to page 2
received or will receive the replies from the other respective Directorates-General in due
course.
In accordance with the Code of Good Administrative Behaviour, we wish to inform you that
the following meetings have been held between DG GROW and Facebook in the period
concerned:
• Meeting between Cabinet Bieńkowska and Facebook on 12 June 2017,
• Meeting between DG GROW unit E4 and EDiMA, including Facebook
representative, on 7 July 2017,
• Meeting between DG GROW unit F5 and Facebook on 7 December 2017.
Your application concerns the following documents: please see the annexed document
register with the list of documents identified.
The documents to which you have requested access contain personal data, in particular
names and contact details of non-senior management staff.
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 Community legislation regarding the
protection of personal data. The applicable legislation in this field is 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
1.
When access is requested to documents containing personal data, Regulation (EC) No
45/2001 becomes fully applicable
2.
According to Article 8(b) of this Regulation, personal data shall only be transferred to
recipients if they establish the necessity of having the data transferred to them and if there is
no reason to assume that the legitimate rights of the persons concerned might be prejudiced.
We consider that, with the information available, the necessity of disclosing the
aforementioned personal data to you has not been established and/or that it cannot be
assumed that such disclosure would not prejudice the legitimate rights of the persons
concerned. Therefore, we are disclosing a version of the documents requested in which
these personal data have been redacted.
As to the handwritten signatures, which are biometric data, there is a risk that their
disclosure would prejudice the legitimate interests of the persons concerned.
Please note that some documents were received by the Commission from third parties. They
are disclosed for information only and cannot be re-used without the agreement of the
originator, who holds a copyright on them. They do not reflect the position of the
Commission and cannot be quoted as such.
Concerning the minutes or the summary record of meetings, please note that these
documents were drawn up for internal use under the responsibility of the relevant services
1 Official Journal L 8 of 12.1.2001, p. 1
2 Judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU of 29 June 2010 in case 28/08 P,
Commission/The Bavarian
Lager Co. Ltd, ECR 2010 I-06055.
2
of DG GROW. They solely reflect the services’ interpretation of the interventions made and
do not set out any official position of the third parties to which the documents refer, which
were not consulted on its content. They do not reflect the position of the Commission and
cannot be quoted as such.
In case you would disagree with the assessment that the redacted data are personal data,
which can only be disclosed if such disclosure is legitimate under the applicable rules on the
protection of personal data, you are entitled, in accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation
1049/2001, 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 unit SG-B-4
BERL 5/288
B-1049 Bruxelles or by email to
: xxxxxxxxxx@xx.xxxxxx.xx
Yours faithfully,
Slawomir Tokarski
Director
Enclosure:
Document Register
GESTDEM 2018/2388.zip
3
Electronically signed on 13/07/2018 01:52 (UTC+02) in accordance with article 4.2 (Validity of electronic documents) of Commission Decision 2004/563
