Document Z4JXbjyzEnLmeyQ1Oqd3MZNwZ

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL ENVIRONMENT The Director-General Brussels, ENV/B.2 Ref. Ares(2021)7685624 - 13/12/2021 Matias Gadaleta Al Mulino Street 1 Fornovo San Giovanni Bergamo 24040 ITALY Sent by email with acknowledgement of receipt: ask+request-985417832f91@asktheeu.org Subject: Your application for access to documents- Ref GestDem No 2021/5116 Dear Mr Gadaleta, We refer to your access to documents request dated 17/08/2021 and registered under the above-mentioned reference number. We would like to sincerely apologise for the delay in our reply. You requested access to: "...For the period between 1 January 2011 to date: - a list of all lobby and industry meetings and/or calls held by the Directorate-Generalfor Environment, th including any Cabinet Members and/or officials, during which "PFAS" and/or "C604" and/or "PFOA" and/or "GenX" were discussed. The list should include: date, individuals attending and organisational affiliation, as well as the issues discussed; - all minutes and other reports of these meetings and/or calls; - all documents prepared for the purpose of the meetings issued both in preparation and after the meetings took place. - all correspondence, including attachments (i.e. any emails, mail correspondence or telephone call notes) between the Directorate-General for Environment, , including any Cabinet Members and/or officials, and any lobby group and/or industry representative discussing "PFAS" and/or "C6O4" and/or "PFOA" and/or "GenX". With a follow-up correspondence, you reduced the timeframe of your request to "1 January 2011 to 31 December 2016". Commission europenne/Europese Commissie, 1049 Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGI - Tel. +32 22991111 Please see in the Annex to this letter a list of the 32 documents in the scope of your request that fall under the responsibility of DG Environment, arranged in chronological order. Among these documents, documents under numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, also fall under the responsibility of DG GROW, to which you also sent a similar request, registered under Gestdem No 2021/5105, and regarding which the reply has been provided (Ares(2021)6131897). We note that the specific above-mentioned documents were also identified by DG GROW in that reply, therefore we refer you to the latter. Having examined the remaining documents under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, we have come to the following conclusions: With regard to the documents 5, 7, 8, 9, a complete disclosure of the identified documents is 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 they contain the following personal data: - names of natural persons - handwritten signatures - contact details, including phone numbers and email addresses Article 9(1)(b) of the Data Protection Regulation 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. Consequently, we conclude that, pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 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. Please note that the enclosed documents 5, 7, and 9 originate from third parties that have been consulted on their disclosure and cannot be re-used without the agreement of the originator. They do not reflect the position of the Commission and cannot be quoted as such. With regard to the document 22 in the attached Annex, I regret to inform you that access to it cannot be granted. Since this document originates from a third party, the originator of the document has been consulted. Following an examination of this document under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 and taking into account the opinion of the third party, disclosure of the entire document is 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. The originator of the document has objected to its disclosure as a whole and has motivated their objection by invoking the exception concerning the protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual and by arguing that the redaction of personal data contained in it would not suffice to protect the identity 2 of the author. We have considered whether partial access could be granted, however, after careful examination, document 22 is entirely covered by the above-mentioned exception. Nevertheless, we enclose a copy of the document referred to under number 23, that is publicly available on the websites indicated in the Annex and is an annex to the abovementioned document 22. Please note that this document also originates from a third party and cannot be re-used without the agreement of the originator. 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 at the following address: European Commission Secretariat-General Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents (SG.C.1) BERL 7/076 B-1049 Bruxelles or by email to: sg-acc-doc@ec.europa.eu Yours sincerely, Encl.: Annexes : Document register Disclosed documents e-signed Florika FINKHOOIJER 3 Electronically signed on 10/12/2021 19:26 (UTC+01) in accordance with article 11 of Commission Decision C(2020) 4482