Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Frontex redacts its hospitality spending figures

  • Frontex spent €494,542.46 for the one-day event but refused to provide a break down of the costs (Photo: Frontex)

The EU's border agency Frontex is refusing to release details on how much its spent on dinners at events to celebrate itself.

EUobserver had earlier this year revealed that the Warsaw-based agency spent €94,000 of European taxpayers' money at a restaurant in 2015.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Frontex spent €94,000 at this upmarket restaurant in Warsaw in 2015 (Photo: Belvedere)

The disclosure has since led to at least two European Parliament amendments where MEPs are on Monday and Tuesday (23 March) threatening to dock its massive budget.

The 2015 gala dinner was part of its so-called European Border and Coast Guard Day, an annual event that brings together border guards from across the EU.

The agency had initially provided a break down of costs for 2015 but offered only totals for 2016 to 2019.

The figures for 2015 was €360,499.45, for 2016 (€371,063.31), for 2017 (€341,324.58), for 2018 (€580,152.22) and 2019 (€494,542.46) - a total of €2.1m.

Each figure represents a total for a one-day event.

The agency has since refused to reveal how much of its 2016 to 2019 budget was dedicated to the evening dinners, when asked.

The question was asked because the dinner in 2015 was its biggest ticket item in the €360,499.45 budget for the day.

Freedom of information requests were instead responded to with eight almost entirely blacked-out documents.

One five-page document, entitled "summary of costs", revealed only the words "Sheraton Sopot Hotel" as well as the May dates in 2018.

Hotel names and event dates were also given for the 2016 (Narvil, Windsor), 2017 (Narvil) and 2019 (Arlamow).

Four other documents entitled "offers" were also entirely redacted.

In a letter, Frontex explained that there "is no overriding public" interest to reveal the numbers.

The agency has since stopped holding these annual events.

But it still claims any disclosure would "undermine the protection of commercial interests of Frontex."

The agency's annual total budget has increased considerably since 2015, going from €142m to €544m for this year.

Its entire budget for the next few years totals €5.6bn, by far the biggest of any EU agency.

Along with the money comes an expanded mandate, more powers and a future 10,000 standing corps of border guards.

A recent report by pro-transparency campaigners had also faulted Frontex for weak accountability, noting a growing closed-door relationship with the security and defence industry.

MEPs overseeing budgets of the EU institutions and agencies are now looking into the agency's accounts.

The agency has come under considerable scrutiny following allegations of illegal push-backs of prospective asylum seekers.

It has denied any wrongdoing. But it is also under a separate probe by the EU's anti-fraud office Olaf amid reports of harassment and misconduct.

MEPs, in the some 85 amendments tabled on the Frontex budget, have cited the allegations as reasons not sign off on its accounts. On Monday, the majority on the committee voted against signing off on its account, in what is likely an embarrassment for the agency.

A final plenary vote is set to take place in April.

Exclusive

Frontex spent €94,000 on a dinner in Warsaw

The European Border and Coast Guard Day is held every May. The event includes movies, football and volleyball matches between Frontex and national border guards, shooting competitions and exercises to detect smugglers.

Frontex takes transparency activists to EU court

The EU border agency Frontex's annual budget for 2020 is €460m. Now they are launching court proceedings against two pro-transparency campaigners for not paying them €24,000 in legal fees after losing a case last year.

Exclusive

EU anti-fraud office launches probe into Frontex

EUobserver was tipped off about the investigation by an anonymous source, who said Olaf had raided the offices of Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri and his chef de cabinet in early December given alleged misconduct.

Analysis

Frontex is its own worst enemy

The Warsaw-based agency held out 105 days, refusing freedom of information requests, before it finally revealed a partial breakdown of costs linked to its annual European Border and Coast Guard Day. Such delays, on spending, tend to arouse suspicions.

Opinion

Frontex: An EU agency gone rogue?

In a Kafka-esque irony, Frontex is withholding public access to documents pertaining to the response of a public institution to a protest by members of the public on grounds that this would violate the "public interest".

Investigation

How migrants risk becoming drug addicts along Balkan route

Psychotropic drug abuse is one of the many dangers migrants face along the Balkan route. In overcrowded camps, doctors prescribe tranquilisers to calm people down. And black market circuits and pharmacies selling drugs without prescription contribute to the issue.

Analysis

Election in sight, EU mood music changes on offshoring asylum

Designating a country like Rwanda as 'safe' under EU rules to send an asylum-seeker there requires strict conditions to be met first. But a backdoor clause introduced into EU legislation allows a future commission to strip out those requirements.

Latest News

  1. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  2. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  3. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  4. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  5. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  6. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult
  7. EU unveils plan to create a European cross-border degree
  8. How migrants risk becoming drug addicts along Balkan route

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us