Frontex met with scores of unregistered lobbyists – Politico

POLITICO- The European Union’s border and coast guard agency Frontex has met with scores of unregistered lobbyists that represent the weapons, surveillance and biometrics industries, according to an investigation published Friday.

As Frontex undergoes a dramatic expansion —  including the creation of a 10,000-strong standing corps of border guards — the agency has also increasingly given privileged access to industry without a corresponding increase in transparency, according to analyses of 136 documents obtained through freedom-of-information requests by NGO Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)and German public broadcaster ZDF.

The investigation also indicated that Frontex misled the European Parliament.

The research found that from 2017 to 2019, Frontex met with 138 private groups: 108 companies, 10 research centers or think tanks, 15 universities and one non-governmental organization. Human rights organizations were notably absent.

POLITICO