1(a) The request made by the Greek Minister of Migration, Notis Mitarachis, and/or his office to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency regarding assistance in return of 1,450 third country nationals in January 2021; - all documentation covering the exchange between Frontex and the Ministry e.g. emails, official letters, minutes of meetings 1(b) - I initially requested information on the return operation or operations supported by Frontex, from Greece, organized as a result of Notis Mitarachi's statement. In order to avoid that the Transparency Office makes an assessment as to which operations are a result of a political statement, I request information of all return operations from Greece for 2021. Points 2) to 11) shall refer to those operations. 2) The exact number of third country nationals that were returned under the above-mentioned operation; 3) Data regarding the nationalities and the number of women, children and men returned; 4) Information about the country/ies the third country nationals mentioned were returned; 5) The legal status of the third country nationals returned (i.e. rejection of asylum application after second level appeals, rejection of asylum application on admissibility grounds etc.); 6) The precise legal basis legislated in the European Border and Coast Guard Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/1896) under which this return operation was organized; 7) The number of forced-return monitors that were deployed with the above-mentioned return operation. If monitors were not deployed, the reasoning for not deploying monitors; 8) The opinion of the Fundamental Rights Officer regarding the return operation; 1 In accordance with Article 7(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 of 30 May 2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (OJ L 145, 31.5.2001, p. 43). Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency www.frontex.europa.eu | Pl. Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland | Tel. +48 22 205 95 00 | Fax +48 22 205 95 01

9) Serious incident reports submitted in relation to the mentioned return operation; 10) Individual complaints submitted regarding the return operation; 11) The final evaluation report of the return operation as well as the final operational report from Greece. With reference to point 6 in conjunction with point 1(b) of your application, the legal basis is contained in the European Border and Coast Guard Regulation2, which is publicly available at https://eur- lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2019/1896/oj and thus made available to you through this link outside the scope of the Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. Please find attached the nine extracts from the databases in regard to points 2, 3, 4 and 7 in conjunction with point 1(b) of your application. Concerning point 1(a) of your application first subparagraph, the requested document was subject to your application PAD-2021-00020, to which Frontex replied on 14 February 2021, and to your confirmatory application PAD-2021-00078, to which Frontex replied on 21 April 2021. As explained to you on 21 April 2021 as part of PAD-2021-00078: In regard to your confirmatory application and further to our reply of 15 February 2021, please be informed that out of the two documents identified as part of your initial application registered on 25 January 2021, one document contains the information you are applying for while the other document constitutes solely its cover email without any informative value in regard to your application and thus does not fall under your application. Furthermore, the cover email contains primarily personal data, such as names of individuals and/or characteristic features which could lead to the identification of individuals. Its disclosure would undermine the protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual, in particular in accordance with European Union legislation regarding the protection of personal data; therefore, access to it has to be precluded pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. For these reasons, the cover email cannot be disclosed. In regard to the document that falls within the scope of your application, access had to be refused as it contains concrete information which disclosure would be detrimental to the relationship of the European Union and its Member States with a third country, including negotiations with this country, with both being severely hampered if the document were to be released. I concur also with our reply of 15 February 2021 that it is not possible to provide further information as to why this document cannot be disclosed without revealing its contents and without thereby depriving this exception of its very purpose. Consequently, since part of this application PAD-2021-00201 was directed at the same documents falling under your earlier initial application PAD-2021-00020 and confirmatory application PAD-2021-00078, and you did not bring forward arguments in regard to a change in the legal and/or factual situation, I refer to Frontex decisions concerning PAD-2021-00020 and PAD-2021-00078.3 This does however not reinstate the timelines of these applications. With reference to the indent of point 1(a) of your application not covered by the above considerations, please be informed Frontex identified five documents, access to which has to be refused as they contain: 2 Regulation (EU) 2019/1896 of 13 November 2019 on the European Border and Coast Guard (OJ L 295, 14.11.2019, p. 1). 3 Cf. Order of the General Court of 12 March 2008 in case T-443/07, Nuova Agricast v Commission, para. 23. Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency www.frontex.europa.eu | Pl. Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland | Tel. +48 22 205 95 00 | Fax +48 22 205 95 01

-  detailed information regarding the modus operandi of law enforcement officials performing return and return-related activities. Disclosing such information would expose the working methods used in ongoing and future operations, putting at risk the efforts made by the European Union and its Member States to return third-country nationals who are subject to national return decisions. This would endanger the public order as well as Member States’ security and, concretely, jeopardise the orderly conduct of return flights as well pose a hazard to the safety of aircraft, passengers and crew. In this light, the disclosure of such information would undermine the protection of the public interest as regards public security as laid down in Article 4(1)(a) first indent of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 and therefore must be refused; -  sensitive information referring to data obtained in cooperation with a Member State of the European Union regarding the effectiveness of border security measures. The disclosure of such information would reveal existing vulnerabilities which, once public, could be explored by criminal networks involved in migrant smuggling, trafficking in human beings and thus undermine the protection of the public interest as regards public security as laid down in Article 4(1)(a) first indent of Regulation (EC) 1049/2001; -  detailed information on the means of communication used by law enforcement officials. The disclosure of this information would put law enforcement officials’ work in jeopardy and harm the course of future and ongoing operations aimed at curtailing the activities of organised criminal networks involved in the smuggling and migrants and trafficking in human beings. As the disclosure of such pieces of information would undermine the protection of the public interest as regards public security, it must therefore be refused as laid down in Article 4(1)(a) first indent of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001; -  information whose disclosure would undermine the protection of the public interest as regards international relations as laid down in Article 4(1)(a) third indent of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. Effective cooperation with third countries is crucial for Frontex and therefore, the unilateral disclosure of these documents must be refused as such would jeopardise the mutual trust of all parties, an essential prerequisite for establishing international relations and ensuring the effectiveness of negotiations in this regard. Moreover, the formulation of negotiating positions involves a number of tactical considerations of all negotiators involved - including Frontex. Consequently, the disclosure of the requested documents would negatively effect on the ability of Frontex and other parties to establish a meaningful cooperation or engagement. In this regard, it is not possible to provide further information as to further justifications impeding the disclosure of the documents without revealing their contents and thereby depriving this exception of its very purpose; -  personal data, such as names of individuals and characteristic features which could lead to the identification of individuals. The disclosure would undermine the protection of privacy and the integrity of the individual, in particular in accordance with European Union legislation regarding the protection of personal data and therefore has to be precluded pursuant to Article 4(1)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001; -  information, whose disclosure would seriously undermine internal decision-making processes regarding current and future activities of Frontex and Member States. The ongoing discussions taking place within Frontex and under its auspices and involving numerous stakeholders require special protection. Namely, disclosing the redacted documents would reveal negotiation positions of the stakeholders, which would erode the mutual trust among all participants. Such information would enable third parties to draw preliminary conclusions and thus, hamper ongoing and future negotiations. As no overriding public interest that is objective and general in nature and not indistinguishable from individual or private interests for the release of these documents is ascertainable in the present case, they cannot be released based on Article 4(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001. A partial release of these documents could not be undertaken, as their redaction would be disproportionate in relation to the parts that are eligible for disclosure, simultaneously undermining the Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency www.frontex.europa.eu | Pl. Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland | Tel. +48 22 205 95 00 | Fax +48 22 205 95 01

principle of sound administration. More specifically, the administrative burden necessary to identify and redact the releasable materials would be disproportionate to the public interest in the disclosure exercise itself, while the released documents would not convey any informative value due to their significantly reduced form. Consequently, the partial disclosure of the documents at issue must be refused owing to the particular circumstances of the present case. Please be further informed that Frontex does not hold documents in regard to points 5, 8, 9, 10 and 11 all in conjunction with point 1(b) of your application. Kindly be reminded that the copyrights of the documents rest with Frontex and making these works available to third parties in this or another form without prior authorisation of Frontex is prohibited. Please also note that Frontex does not assume liability stemming from the use of the documents. Pursuant to Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, within 15 working days of the receipt of this letter, you may submit a confirmatory application to Frontex to reconsider its position. Based on Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, Frontex will reply to you within 15 working days from the registration of such application. You can submit your confirmatory application by post or electronically. Frontex - European Border and Coast Guard Agency www.frontex.europa.eu | Pl. Europejski 6, 00-844 Warsaw, Poland | Tel. +48 22 205 95 00 | Fax +48 22 205 95 01