Frontex Files: Jan Böhmermann accuses EU authorities of making false statements

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The satirist Jan Böhmermann has accused the EU border protection agency Frontex of making false statements about meetings with lobbyists from the armaments industry.

"Because Frontex does not live up to its responsibility as an EU agency, the ZDF Magazin Royale has taken on this task," said a website with the name "Frontex Files" on Friday.

Frontex is currently under pressure because of the alleged illegal rejection of refugees and a possible fraud case. 

According to Böhmermann, in 2018 the border protection authority answered a Member of the European Parliament's question in the negative about having participated in meetings with lobbyists in 2017 and stated that it only met with representatives listed in the EU transparency register.

According to the documents, however, there were four meetings with lobbyists in the year in question, more than half of which were not registered with the EU.

At meetings in the following two years, almost three out of four stakeholders were not registered with the EU. 

According to the report, the companies presented weapons and ammunition at the meetings and tried to influence the agency's policy.

The EU border guards were particularly interested in the collection, use and storage of biometric data at the meetings.

In the long term, these should make identification through passports unnecessary.

The use of facial recognition technology is controversial within the EU.

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According to its own information, the “ZDF Magazin Royale” and the non-governmental organization Ask den Staat evaluated 142 documents from 16 meetings with company representatives between 2017 and 2019.

It is the "first lobby transparency register of the border protection agency Frontex".

The team received the documents through inquiries about the freedom of information law of the European Union.

Frontex itself is currently under pressure.

In October, various media reported on the agency's alleged involvement in the illegal rejections of migrants by the Greek coast guard.

The EU anti-fraud authority Olaf has started an investigation against the EU agency.

A possible fraud case in connection with a Polish IT company is also currently being investigated, according to a “Spiegel” report.