3.9.2015

Official Journal of the European Union

C 289/2

Notice for the attention of the persons subject to the restrictive measures provided for in Council Decision 2013/798/CFSP, as implemented by Council Implementing Decision (CFSP) 2015/1488, and Council Regulation (EU) No 224/2014, as implemented by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1485 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in the Central African Republic

(2015/C 289/03)

The following information is brought to the attention of the persons listed in the Annex to Council Decision 2013/798/CFSP (1), as implemented by Council Implementing Decision (CFSP) 2015/1488 (2), and in Annex I to Council Regulation (EU) No 224/2014 (3), as implemented by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1485 (4) concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in the Central African Republic.

On 20 August 2015, the Sanctions Committee established pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2127 (2013) updated the information concerning three persons on the list of persons and entities subject to the measures imposed by paragraphs 30 and 32 of Resolution 2134 (2014).

The persons concerned may submit at any time a request to the UN Committee established pursuant to Resolution 2127 (2013), together with any supporting documentation, for the decisions to include them in the UN list to be reconsidered. Any such request should be sent to the following address:

Focal Point for De-listing

Security Council Subsidiary Organs Branch

Room DC2 0853B

United Nations

New York, N.Y. 10017

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Tel. +1 9173679448

Fax +1 2129631300

E-mail: delisting@un.org

For further information, see: http://www.un.org/sc/committees/2127/

Further to the UN decision, the Council of the European Union has determined that the persons designated by the UN should be included in the lists of persons and entities which are subject to the restrictive measures provided for in Decision 2013/798/CFSP and Regulation (EU) No 224/2014. The grounds for listing of the persons concerned appear in the relevant entries in the Annex to the Decision and in Annex I to the Regulation.

The attention of the persons concerned is drawn to the possibility of making an application to the competent authorities of the relevant Member State(s) as indicated on the websites in Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 224/2014, in order to obtain an authorisation to use frozen funds for basic needs or specific payments (cf. Article 7 of the Regulation).

The persons concerned may submit a request to the Council, together with supporting documentation, that the decision to include them on the above-mentioned lists should be reconsidered, to the following address:

Council of the European Union

General Secretariat

DG C 1C

Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 175

1048 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

E-mail: sanctions@consilium.europa.eu

The attention of the persons concerned is also drawn to the possibility of challenging the Council's decision before the General Court of the European Union, in accordance with the conditions laid down in Article 275, second paragraph, and Article 263, fourth and sixth paragraphs, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

(1) OJ L 352, 24.12.2013, p. 51.

(2) OJ L 229, 3.9.2015, p. 12.

(3) OJ L 70, 11.3.2014, p. 1.

(4) OJ L 229, 3.9.2015, p. 1.

3.9.2015

Official Journal of the European Union

C 289/4

Notice for the attention of the data subjects to whom the restrictive measures provided for in Council Regulation (EU) No 224/2014 as implemented by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1485 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in the Central African Republic apply

(2015/C 289/04)

The attention of data subjects is drawn to the following information in accordance with Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1):

The legal basis for this processing operation is Council Regulation (EU) No 224/2014 (2), as implemented by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1485 (3).

The controller of this processing operation is the Council of the European Union, represented by the Director-General of DG C (Foreign Affairs, Enlargement, Civil Protection) of the General Secretariat of the Council, and the department entrusted with the processing operation is Unit 1C, which can be contacted at:

Council of the European Union

General Secretariat

DG C 1C

Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 175

1048 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

Email: sanctions@consilium.europa.eu

The purpose of the processing operation is the establishment and updating of the list of persons subject to restrictive measures in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 224/2014, as implemented by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1485.

The data subjects are the natural persons who fulfil the listing criteria as laid down in that Regulation.

The personal data collected includes data necessary for the correct identification of the person concerned, the Statement of Reasons and any other data related thereto.

The personal data collected may be shared as necessary with the European External Action Service and the Commission.

Without prejudice to restrictions provided for in Article 20(1)(a) and (d) of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001, requests for access, as well as requests for rectification or objection will be answered in accordance with Section 5 of Council Decision 2004/644/EC (4).

Personal data will be retained for 5 years from the moment the data subject has been removed from the list of persons subject to the asset freeze or the validity of the measure has expired, or for the duration of court proceedings in the event they had been started.

Data subjects may have recourse to the European Data Protection Supervisor in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001.

(1) OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1.

(2) OJ L 70, 11.3.2014, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 229, 3.9.2015, p. 1.

(4) OJ L 296, 21.9.2004, p. 16.

3.9.2015

Official Journal of the European Union

C 289/5

Euro exchange rates (1)

2 September 2015

(2015/C 289/05)

1 euro =

	Currency	Exchange rate
USD	US dollar	1,1255
JPY	Japanese yen	135,21
DKK	Danish krone	7,4632
GBP	Pound sterling	0,73690
SEK	Swedish krona	9,4968
CHF	Swiss franc	1,0867
ISK	Iceland króna
NOK	Norwegian krone	9,3015
BGN	Bulgarian lev	1,9558
CZK	Czech koruna	27,023
HUF	Hungarian forint	313,95
PLN	Polish zloty	4,2359
RON	Romanian leu	4,4403
TRY	Turkish lira	3,3126
AUD	Australian dollar	1,6061
CAD	Canadian dollar	1,4919
HKD	Hong Kong dollar	8,7226
NZD	New Zealand dollar	1,7766
SGD	Singapore dollar	1,5938
KRW	South Korean won	1 332,76
ZAR	South African rand	15,1480
CNY	Chinese yuan renminbi	7,1537
HRK	Croatian kuna	7,5535
IDR	Indonesian rupiah	15 920,10
MYR	Malaysian ringgit	4,7391
PHP	Philippine peso	52,647
RUB	Russian rouble	75,8536
THB	Thai baht	40,250
BRL	Brazilian real	4,1992
MXN	Mexican peso	19,0198
INR	Indian rupee	74,5011

(1) Source: reference exchange rate published by the ECB.

3.9.2015

Official Journal of the European Union

C 289/6

Executive summary of the Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the EU-Switzerland agreements on the automatic exchange of tax information

(The full text of this Opinion can be found in English, French and German on the EDPS website www.edps.europa.eu)

(2015/C 289/06)

Summary

The EU has signed, or is negotiating, bilateral agreements with Switzerland, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino aiming to regulate and facilitate the exchange of financial, tax-relevant information, thus putting an end to banking secrecy in tax matters.

On a basis of the provisions of the agreement recently concluded with Switzerland (the ‘Agreement’), the EDPS has decided to call on the EU legislator to implement data protection safeguards in future similar bilateral agreements dealing with automatic exchange of tax information.

The context: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was mandated by the G20 to develop a single global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information, in order to implement automatic exchange of information as a means to combat cross-border tax fraud and tax evasion by ensuring full tax transparency and cooperation between tax administrations worldwide. The OECD adopted such system in July 2014 (the ‘Global Standard’).

In order to implement the Global Standard in the exchanges of data between the EU and the Swiss Confederation, the Agreement -signed by the parties on 27 May 2015 and replacing a previous agreement on the same subject- contains a number of provisions regulating the automatic exchange of tax information between the concerned tax authorities in Switzerland and in the Member States.

Such increased attention against tax evasion and the automatic exchange of financial information calls for appropriate safeguards for data protection rights.

The safeguards: The EDPS finds that, in spite of the provisions on data protection contained in Article 6 of the Agreement, basic data protection safeguards have not been fully implemented. He considers, in particular, that the following safeguards would have been appropriate:

(i)	make the collection and exchange of tax-relevant information conditional on the effective risk of tax evasion;

(ii)	limit the purpose of data processing to the pursuit of a legitimate policy goal (i.e. countering tax evasion), preventing use for additional purposes without informing data subjects;

(iii)

provide for proper information of the data subjects as to the purpose and modalities of processing of their financial data, including the recipients of their data;

(iv)	set forth explicit security and data protection standards to be complied with by private and public authorities engaging in the collection and exchange of tax information;

(v)	provide for an explicit retention period applicable to the tax information exchanged and mandate for its deletion, once such information is no longer processed for the purpose of countering tax evasion.

I. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GLOBAL STANDARD FOR AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNT INFORMATION

The importance of automatic exchange of information as a means to combat cross-border tax fraud and tax evasion by ensuring full tax transparency and cooperation between tax administrations worldwide has been recognised at the international level. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was mandated by the G20 to develop a single global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information. The Global Standard was released by the OECD Council in July 2014.

In the EU, in order to preserve the level playing field of economic operators, agreements have been signed with Switzerland, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino providing for measures equivalent to those laid down in directive No. 2003/48/EC (on taxation of savings income in the form of interest payments) (1). The purpose of these agreements was to regulate and facilitate the exchange of financial information, relevant for taxation purposes, among the competent authorities of the countries involved in the agreements, thus putting an end to banking secrecy in tax matters.

On 27 May 2015, the President of the Council signed, on behalf of the European Union, the Amending Protocol to the agreement between the European Community and the Swiss Confederation providing for measures equivalent to those laid down in Council Directive No 2003/48/EC on taxation of savings income in the form of interest payments (hereafter ‘the Agreement’). The approval of the conclusion of the Agreement by the European Parliament is currently pending.

In order to minimise costs and administrative burdens both for tax administrations and for economic operators, the Agreement aims at bringing the existing Savings Agreement with Switzerland in line with EU and international developments as regards automatic exchange of information. This will increase tax transparency in Europe and will be the legal basis for implementing the OCDE Global Standard on automatic exchange of information between Switzerland and the EU.

Therefore, in order to implement the Global Standard in the exchanges of data between the EU and the Swiss Confederation, the Agreement contains a number of provisions regulating the automatic exchange of tax information between the concerned tax authorities in Switzerland and in the Member States.

The increased attention against tax evasion and the automatic exchange of financial information, however, calls for appropriate safeguards for data protection rights. This is a crucial aspect, considering that the OECD rules on automatic exchange converge on principles already adopted by the US legislation on the subject (the US FATCA) which, nonetheless, have a different approach to data protection issues (2).

With respect to the protection of personal data, it must be noted that the Agreement includes, in its Article 6, provisions on confidentiality and data protection. In addition, it must be borne in mind that the Commission has adopted an adequacy decision (3) finding that the data protection legal framework in force in Switzerland is consistent with the principles of Directive No 95/46/EC (the ‘Data Protection Directive’) thus allowing for unrestricted transfer of data pursuant to Articles 25 and 26 of the same Directive.

In this Opinion, we would like to formulate a number of considerations focusing on the data protection implications of the Agreement, with a view to provide guidance on essential safeguards that should be embedded in future bilateral agreements entered into by the EU for the purpose of facilitating the automatic exchange of financial account information.

III. CONCLUSION

29.

In the light of the considerations above, we take note of the fact that the implementation of the Global Standard is considered as necessary to counter tax evasion and thus ensure a level playing field to market operators.

30.

We consider, nonetheless, that, during the negotiation phase, a number of corrections should have been made to the Agreement in order to better address data protection issues. We now call on the EU legislator to introduce such data protection safeguards in future measures implementing the Agreement and in future bilateral agreements to be concluded with other countries in the same field. In particular, any similar agreement or future implementing measure should:

—	ensure proportionality of the data processing, by making the collection and exchange of tax information conditional on the effective risk of tax evasion and by implementing criteria to exempt low-risk accounts from reporting;

—	limit the purpose of data processing to the pursuit of a legitimate policy goal and prevent use for additional purposes without informing data subjects;

—	provide for proper information of the data subjects (pursuant to Article 10 of the Data Protection Directive) as to the purpose and modalities of processing of their financial data, including the recipients of their data;

—	set forth explicit security and data protection standards to be complied with by private and public authorities engaging in the collection and exchange of tax information (privacy-by-design). It should also provide for sanctions in case of breach of such provisions;

—	provide for an explicit retention period applicable to the tax information exchanged and mandate for its deletion, once such information is no longer processed for the purpose of countering tax evasion.

Done at Brussels, 8 July 2015.

Wojciech Rafał WIEWIÓROWSKI

European Data Protection Assistant Supervisor

(1) Council Directive 2003/48/EC of 3 June 2003 on taxation of savings income in the form of interest payments (OJ L 157, 26.6.2003, p. 38).

(2) Article 29 WP letter of 18.9.2014 on the OECD Common Reporting Standard, available at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/article-29/documentation/other-document/files/2014/20140918_letter_on_oecd_common_reporting_standard.pdf.pdf

(3) Commission Decision 2000/518/EC of 26 July 2000, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1415700329280&uri=CELEX:32000D0518

3.9.2015

Official Journal of the European Union

C 289/9

Prior notification of a concentration

(Case M.7691 — Apollo/OMG)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2015/C 289/07)

On 24 August 2015, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertaking Apollo Management, L.P. (Apollo, USA) acquires within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation control of the whole of the undertaking OM Group, Inc. (OMG, USA) by way of purchase of shares.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

— for Apollo: investment activities in various business sectors globally, including companies in the chemical business,

— for OMG: manufacture of specialty chemicals for electronic and industrial applications, of batteries and accumulators, and of magnetic and optical data, globally.

3.	On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by e-mail to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference M.7691 — Apollo/OMG, to the following address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË

(1) OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’).

		ISSN 1977-091X
Official Journal of the European Union		C 289

English edition	Information and Notices	Volume 58 3 September 2015

Notice No	Contents	page
	II Information
	INFORMATION FROM EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS, BODIES, OFFICES AND AGENCIES
	European Commission
2015/C 289/01	Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case M.7676 — GKN/Fokker) ( 1 )	1
2015/C 289/02	Non-opposition to a notified concentration (Case M.7679 — Evo Payments International/Raiffeisen Bank Polska/Raiffeisenbank/JVS) ( 1 )	1

	V Announcements
	PROCEDURES RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPETITION POLICY
	European Commission
2015/C 289/07	Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.7691 — Apollo/OMG) ( 1 )	9

	IV Notices
	NOTICES FROM EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS, BODIES, OFFICES AND AGENCIES
	Council
2015/C 289/03	Notice for the attention of the persons subject to the restrictive measures provided for in Council Decision 2013/798/CFSP, as implemented by Council Implementing Decision (CFSP) 2015/1488, and Council Regulation (EU) No 224/2014, as implemented by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1485 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in the Central African Republic	2
2015/C 289/04	Notice for the attention of the data subjects to whom the restrictive measures provided for in Council Regulation (EU) No 224/2014 as implemented by Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1485 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in the Central African Republic apply	4
	European Commission
2015/C 289/05	Euro exchange rates	5
	European Data Protection Supervisor
2015/C 289/06	Executive summary of the Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the EU-Switzerland agreements on the automatic exchange of tax information	6