EUIPO PUBLIC REGISTER

Alicante, 12 April 2021

HRD/Ref: 18-21DIN: 0100208944

Ms Felicia Cretsu

By email: felicia.cretsu@gmail.com

Subject: Ref 18-21: Your request dated 23 February 2021

Dear Madam,

We refer to your e-mail of 23 February 2021 wherein you request specific information from
the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

Please be informed that your request is covered by different legal frameworks, notably:

- 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
documents1 applicable to EUIPO in accordance with Article 149(1) of Regulation
(EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017 on
the European Union trade mark (EUTMR)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/EC3 applicable to EUIPO in accordance with Article 149(4) EUTMR (the
“Data Protection Regulation”);
- The EUIPO’s Code of Good Administrative Behaviour4.

I. Your request for access to documents

In your email of 23 February 2021, you request access to “the exchange of letters with the
president of the Moldovan National Office, Mr. Viorel Iustin, regarding the delegation of Mrs.
Lilia Bolocan for the secondment.”

On the basis of the information provided in your email we were able to identify one
document, which corresponds to the description given in your request.

1 OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43
2 OJ L 154, 16.6.2017, p. 1
3 OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39–98
4 Decision No ADM-00-37 of the President of the Office of 9 July 2001

Avenida de Europa, 4 • E - 03008 • Alicante, Spain

Tel. +34 965139100 • www.euipo.europa.eu
 EUIPO PUBLIC REGISTER

Since document originates from a third party, the originator of the document has been
consulted.

The originator of the document has agreed to partially disclose the document that it has sent
to EUIPO, notably the personal data contained in the document and the pertinent annex
have been expunged.

Therefore, taking into account the position of the third party and following an examination of
document under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to
documents and taking into account the opinion of the third party, we inform you that your
application cannot be granted fully, as full disclosure is prevented by one of the exceptions
to the right of access, notably the one laid down in Article 4(1)(b) of the Regulation - privacy
and the integrity of the individual.

In accordance with settled caselaw, where a request based on Regulation No 1049/2001

seeks to obtain access to documents including personal data, the provisions of Regulation
(EU) 2018/1725 (the Data Protection Regulation) become applicable in their entirety.

With regard to the personal data in the document, i.e. names of natural persons and
handwritten signatures, please note that transfers of personal data from EUIPO to countries
that are not members of the European Economic Area (EEA) is regulated under Chapter V
of the Data Protection Regulation.

The attachment annexed to the document contains information which represents personal
data and is also completely covered by the exception under Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation
(EU) 1049/2001.

According to Article 47(1) of the Data Protection Regulation, a transfer of personal data to a
third country may take place where it has been established that the third country in question
ensures an adequate level of protection and where the personal data are transferred solely
to allow tasks within the competence of the controller to be carried out.5 Any transfer of
personal data to a third country may also take place under specific circumstances, using
appropriate safeguards and derogations which shall be interpreted strictly under articles 48
and 50 of the Data Protection Regulation respectively, none of which are applicable to the
case at stake.

Based on the information available, it is not established that these conditions are fulfilled in
the country of your residence, notably Moldavia. Consequently, it is concluded 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 document, since the confidentiality, integrity and
privacy of the individual’s personal data cannot be adequately protected.

Please further note that the exceptions under Article 4(1) of Regulation (EC) No
1049/2001are absolute in nature and are not balanced by an overriding public interest in
disclosure.

In accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, you are entitled to make a
confirmatory application requesting EUIPO to review this position.

5The recognised so far countries as providing adequate protection are Andorra, Argentina, Canada (commercial
organisations), Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Israel, Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay.
Avenida de Europa, 4 • E - 03008 • Alicante, Spain
Tel. +34 965139100 • www.euipo.europa.eu
 EUIPO PUBLIC REGISTER

Such a confirmatory application should be addressed within 15 working days upon receipt of
this letter to the EUIPO Executive Director at the following email address:
publicregister@euipo.europa.eu

II. You request for access to third party personal data

Additionally, in your email of 23 February 2021 you seek to obtain personal data that belong
to a third party.

Notably, you have requested the following personal data:

➢ the period of secondment of Ms Lilia Bolocan;

➢ the type of tasks assigned to Ms Lilia Bolocan;
➢ the monthly non-taxable allocation received by Ms Lilia Bolocan;

All the information above represents personal data of Ms Lilia Bolocan in the virtue of Article
3(1) of the Data Protection Regulation and is, therefore, protected.

The Data Protection Regulation sets a number of conditions for the disclosure of personal
data, which whenever possible, must be compatible with the purposes for which they were
collected, as decided at the time of collection.

In the case of secondment, any personal data supplied by the SNE’s employer and by the
SNE him/herself to EUIPO is processed solely for administrative purposes and for efficient
management of the SNE’s rights and obligations.

How EUIPO processes the individuals, i.e. data subject(s), personal data is communicated
to them in advance in a document called privacy statement. Under point 4 of the privacy
statement concerning the processing operations of personal data within the framework of the
secondment of National Experts to EUIPO – SNEs, it is indicated that “the data are not used
for any other purposes nor disclosed to any other recipient” than those listed therein. Hence,
the list under point 4 is exhaustive.

Furthermore, we refer to the arguments under point 1 above regarding the possibility of
transfer of personal data to a third country, which are valid also here.

In the light of the above, access to the personal data of Ms Lilia Bolocan cannot be granted.

For further information on what personal data are processed by EUIPO in the context of
secondments, the relevant legal basis applicable and who can have access to it we invite
you to consult the relevant record available at the following link (ref. DPR-2018-074).

III. Your request for information

Please find here below the answers to your questions.

You would like to know the “number of CVs proposed by the president of the Moldavian
National Office, Mr. Viorel Iustin, during the hiring procedure in 2020”.

Avenida de Europa, 4 • E - 03008 • Alicante, Spain

Tel. +34 965139100 • www.euipo.europa.eu
 EUIPO PUBLIC REGISTER

Please be informed that EUIPO has received one letter to this regard and that any
national/domestic selection phase of nominations to the EUIPO SNE program by any partner
country remain the sole and exclusive competence of those partners – in this case, the State
Agency for Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova. Furthermore, we would like to
clarify that Seconded National Experts (SNEs) do not have a statutory link with EUIPO and
are not staff members of EUIPO. Conversely, they remain national or international civil
servants of their administration of origin, in this case, AGEPI, temporarily on secondment to
the EUIPO under agreements for the exchange of staff between EUIPO and any central
intellectual property office; or any local, regional, national public administration or institution;
or any public intergovernmental organisation (IGO). It should be noted that the SNE
programme of EUIPO is part of EUIPO´s international cooperation initiatives and, to that
effect, AGEPI staff participation in such program is enabled by the Memorandum of
Understanding signed with the said agency.

You further ask if “integrity is a relevant aspect when hiring staff at EUIPO?”

Members of the European civil service are subject to a number of rights and obligations
governing their actions and behaviour in the exercise of their professional activities. They
have a duty to serve the public interest and to operate within a framework of principles and
rules that govern their conduct with regard to ethics and integrity.

These rules are contained in the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union and the
Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union6 and the Code of Good
Administrative Behaviour. They include potential conflicts of interest, gifts and honours
received, external activities while working for the EU and employment after having worked
for the EU.

As noted earlier, SNEs are not staff of EUIPO and they are enabled to participate in the SNE
program only in as much as their remain in an employment relationship with the
administration of origin, which AGEPI has confirmed in writing.

Please note that SNEs, unlike EUIPO staff, can only exercise a limited number of tasks and
are, for instance, banned from representing the office, travelling without the supervision and
accompanied by EUIPO staff, assume any financial responsibilities, etc. This is the
consequence and the corollary of the SNEs programme's design mainly as a learning
experience, as is also the case of other EUIPO programmes such as the Traineeship
program, or the Young Professionals programme.

You also inquire whether “the integrity issues of Mrs Bolocan established in her country of
origin are of nature to impact her secondment at EUIPO”.

In accordance with the rules in place, secondments are implemented following an exchange
of letters formalising an agreement between EUIPO and the expert's employer. During their
secondment but also afterwards SNEs are subject to certain obligations.

For example, under EUIPO´s internal rules applicable to SNEs, the said SNEs remain bound
by the obligation to act with integrity and discretion as regards the exercise of new tasks
assigned to him or her and in accepting certain posts or advantages. To this end, during the

6 OJ L 154, 16.6.2017, p. 1
Avenida de Europa, 4 • E - 03008 • Alicante, Spain
Tel. +34 965139100 • www.euipo.europa.eu
 EUIPO PUBLIC REGISTER

three years after the period of secondment an SNE shall inform EUIPO without delay of any
duties which he or she is required to carry out for his current employer which may give rise
to any conflict of interest in relation to his or her duties while seconded to EUIPO.

Ultimately, please be informed that Decision No AMD 10-10 of 8 September 2011 laying
down the rules applicable to national experts on secondment to the departments of the
Office (SNEs) is applicable to all secondments that started before 1 June 2016. For
secondments after that date, the applicable decision is Decision No MB-16-13 of the
Management Board of the Office of 31 May 2016.

Yours sincerely,

Julie Miller Holmer

EUIPO Public Register

Enclosure(s):

1. Letter from the State Agency on Intellectual Property of the Republic of Moldova
(AGEPI) dated 29 May 2020 to the Executive Director of EUIPO, Mr Christian
Archambeau

Avenida de Europa, 4 • E - 03008 • Alicante, Spain

Tel. +34 965139100 • www.euipo.europa.eu