Jorgo Chatzimarkakis

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (born 21 April 1966, Duisburg)is a German MEP for the Liberal Party (FDP). He studied Political Science, and served as a Science Policy Officer at the Bundestag (1993-1996). He was a member of the Foreign Office planning staff (1996-1998), and the managing director of Polit Data Concept (management consultants Luxembourg/Brussels) (1999-2004), as well as the managing director of Perl Academy (European management training) (2002-2004). He is a member of the Federal executive of the FDP (since 1995), the secretary-general of the FDP Saar (since 2002), and a member of the ELDR Council (since 1995). He is also a founder member of the German-Greek Industrial Association (DHW) (1993), and a member of the Liberal Turco-German Association (LTD) (since 1995).

His parliamentary duties include memberships of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, the Committee on Budgetary Control, and the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China. He is also a substitute member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Delegation for relations with the countries of south-east Europe, and the Delegation for relations with Iran.

Background

Before becoming an MEP in 2004, Chatzimarkakis worked in public relations and management consultancy. From 1999-2004 he was Managing Director of Polit Data Concept, a management consultancy and lobbying firm otherwise known as pdc EU Affairs. In his official declaration on his European Parliament website he says the company was active in Belgium and Luxembourg. Before he left the firm, Chatzimarkakis’s fellow partner was Thomas Krings. A sister company, called Polit Data Content was also set up in Germany, and formerly run by Chatzimarkakis and an ex-student of his, Lutz Dommel.

One of pdc EU Affairs’ clients was the German company Infineon, a leading technology and security company. Infineon makes semiconductors and system solutions for cars, industrial electronics, chip card and security as well as applications in communications.

One of the major technologies promoted by Infineon is what is known as RFID or radio frequency identification. In simple terms, RFID technology allows a chip to be embedded within any object allowing it to be tracked and to carry information. In 2004 Infineon opened a RFID “Solution Excellence Center” in Graz, Austria with a budget for R&D of 30 million euros. Two years later the company announced it was working with the US government on RFID for American passports. By 2007, Infineon had invested over $1.2 billion in China, which has just become the largest RFID application market in the world.

Register of Interests

• Managing Director (1999-2004), Poli Data Concept, Luxembourg/Brussels - Management Consultancy and Lobbying Firm

Conflicts of Interest

According to press reports, Infineon was Chatzimarkakis’s biggest client, whom he used to visit twice a month. Chatzimarkakis also held an EU accredited pass for Infineon, and represented the company at a European Commission seminar on eDemocracy in February 2004, just four months before becoming an MEP. There is a further blurring of the lines between pdc EU Affairs staff and Infineon, before and after Chatzimarkakis became an MEP.

Since joining the Parliament, Chatzimarkakis has actively been involved in the RFID debate on the Parliament’s Research and Development Committee and as a panel member of the Scientific Technology Options Assessment (STOA), an official parliamentary body led by MEPs, which helps inform EU scientific and technological policy.

Through STOA, Chatzimarkakis has pushed RFID, and “has been busy organising events to raise awareness of the RFID technological revolution”. At one STOA event in 2006, he talked about the “promising application potential” of RFID, especially in the fields of pharmaceuticals, health, agriculture, transport, logistics, and security. He was also one of the chairs and speakers at the EU’s RFID conference in 2006. In early 2007, Chatzimarkakis told CORDIS News (the daily online news service provided by the EU): “RFID will make our lives faster, more reliable and safer. The technology is already being used in a lot of circumstances and in a lot of applications, be it in public transport or for access to buildings.” He also spoke on RFID at the Euro ID trade fair in 2007.

Polit Data Concept: Conflicting claims

When Chatzimarkakis entered Parliament in 2004 he wrote that “the work of an interest representative for industry is not compatible with the status of an MEP.” Chatzimarkakis explained this was why he resigned from being Managing Director of Polit Data Concept. He added that his company was being dissolved and “without my participation was refounded with new partners”.

There is documentary and other evidence that seems to contradict this claim. First, Chatzimarkakis retained shares in Polit Data Concept. His official declarations to the Parliament are in German, which have been professionally translated. In 2004, he declared: “Shares of Polit Data Concept are held on trust”; in 2005: “Shares of Polit Data Concept are dormant” and “shares of pdc EU Affairs are held on trust”; and in 2006: “Shares of Polit Data GbR Luxemburg are dormant.”

When asked for clarification about these entries, Chatzimarkakis’s assistant said that all the declarations “refer to the company Mr. Chatzimarkakis previously owned in Luxembourg”, stating that the shares and the company itself were “not active”. His assistant also claims: “Mr. Chatzimarkakis, upon entering the Parliament [in 2004], stopped his activities with Polit Data Concept and sold the name rights. He doesn't have any shares.” When asked whether any shares were placed in a blind trust, and if so, under whose control, his assistant declared: “No. No shares,” adding “Mr. Chatzimarkakis does not have any shares in any Polit Data Concept company.”

This may have been true by summer 2008, but documents reveal that MEP Chatzimarkakis held an interest in Polit Data Concept until the end of 2007. Company documents show that just a month after becoming an MEP in July 2004, Chatzimarkakis increased his share of Polit Data Concept from 50 per cent to 55 per cent. Thomas Krings was another shareholder. Polit Data Concept was also only dissolved in December 2007, some three and a half years after Chatzimarkakis became an MEP, with Chatzimarkakis acting as the liquidator in January 2008. Any outstanding money was at the disposal of the associates, including Chatzimarkakis, although it is not known if there was any money at the end. Chatzimarkakis didn’t disclose any link with PDC in 2007 in his official EU declaration.

Moreover a lobbyist for “PDC: Polit Data Concept”, Alexander Schelhase – who has also been listed as representing Infineon Technologies – was registered at the European Parliament from 2006. If as Chatzimarkakis’s office claims the company was no longer active by 2006, why was a PDC lobbyist registered at the European Parliament that year?

Chatzimarkakis’s former colleagues, Thomas Krings, and Lutz Dommel also provide a link between the MEP, Polit Data Concept and client Infineon. In the spring of 2007, Krings, and Dommel set up a new lobbying company in Brussels called “pdc EU Affairs”, with both men holding shares (Krings 60 per cent, Dommel 40 per cent) – Chatzimarkakis having sold the name rights to Dommel in 2007. According to Dommel, one of pdc EU Affairs’ first new clients after the company was re-launched in 2007 was Infineon. In 2007, PDC was listed as Infineon Technologies Liaison Office in Brussels.

At the time the new company was established, Krings was a staff member for ALDE (one of the big political groups in Europe), and a policy advisor to the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, of which Chatzimarkakis is a substitute Member. Krings though denies he is involved in the new company, only that he “helped a friend set it up”.

Dommel became Managing Director of the relaunched pdc EU Affairs. At the same time he was also working for Chatzimarkakis: he was head of the MEP’s office from May 2004 to July 2007, and for the next six months worked for him “writing speeches and texts”. Dommel is not the only one to have passed between Chatzimikarkis’s office and PDC. For example, one person who appeared as a registered lobbyist at the Parliament for PDC and Infineon also worked as an intern for a short period in Chatzimarkakis’s office. Finally, lobbyist Alexander Schelhase, who was registered as a lobbyist for “PDC – Polit Data Concept” in 2006, and PDC EU Affairs” in 2007 and 2008, now works with Dommel on a freelance basis at the new pdc EU Affairs.

Dommel is now considering changing the name of his company: “I think we will look for a new name because of all this trouble. I thought the advantages would be bigger than the disadvantages. Also when I deal with some MEPs they say they have heard of the name before, and the involvement of Mr Chatzimarkakis.”

Resources

• ALDE website, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Chatzimarkakis, Jorgo, Declarations of Financial Interest, 2004, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Chatzimarkakis, Jorgo, Declarations of Financial Interest, 2007, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Chatzimarkakis, Jorgo, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Scientific Technology Options Assessment, Newsletter, August 2006, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Chatzimarkakis, Jorgo, Dr. RFID – What to expect from EU Regulation? Member of European Parliament Committee of Industry/Research/Energy, 12 March 2006, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Cordis News, The RFID technological revolution, 08 February 2007, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Ecoheat, Participants List - Heating and cooling markets: renewables and energy efficiency hand in hand, 4 December 2006, accessed 09 November 2008.
• EU RFID Conference 2006: Heading For The Future, Results of the EU RFID Public Consultation Process and Future Options, 16 October 2006, accessed 09 November 2008.
• European Parliament website, Accredited Lobbyists, accessed 09 November 2008.
• European Parliament website - MEP Directory: Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Gruppi d'interesse accreditati presso il Parlamento europe, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Infineon website, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Infineon website, 'Infineon opens RFID Solution Excellence Center in Graz - Complete RFID System Solutions available for Logistics Applications', 30 March 2004, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Jorgo Chatzimarkakis website, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Jorgo Chatzimarkakis website, Transparenz, Nebenbeschäftigung und finanzielle Interessen, Grundsätzliche Überlegungen, accessed 11 November 2008.
• Rowell, Andy, Too Close for Comfort?, Spinwatch, July 2008, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Security Taskforce website, WSI Members, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Strategies, Telecom and Multi-Media website, Infineon's investment in China reaching a total of 1.2 billion dollars by 2007, Undated, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Workshop on Co-Operating Objects, Brussels, 23 and 24 June 2005, List of Participants, accessed 09 November 2008.
• Xiao, Ning; Trevor Crotch-Harvey, Dr Peter Harrop and Raghu Das, RFID in China 2008-2018, 2008 IDTechEx, accessed 09 November 2008.