The Dutch TV journalist joked for a moment in a secret video conference of EU defense ministers held at Zoom on Friday 20 November. RTLNieuws journalist Daniel Verlan posted a video about this on his Twitter page.
After a polite request from Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who presided over the meeting, and a warning about criminal responsibility for this step, Verlan immediately said goodbye and cut the connection.
He connected to a secret videoconference from his apartment and waved his hand to the ministers. His appearance was immediately noticed and caused slight confusion and laughter. It was not difficult to find him among 28 conference participants, since a satisfied journalist appeared on the screen in a black T-shirt and against the background of an ordinary apartment, while the rest of the conference participants were in suits and against the background of national flags.
The journalist himself has already explained that he was able to connect simply by analyzing the meeting code and password for connecting to Zoom in one of the photos on Twitter of the Dutch Minister of Defense.
At a videoconference of defense ministers on Friday, a secret draft of a future EU military concept called the EU’s Strategic Compass was discussed. At a press conference following the meeting, Borrell did not mention the incident with the Dutch journalist, but noted that the “Strategic Compass” is created on the basis of the combined data of intelligence services of all EU states, therefore it will not be published and will remain a strictly confidential document.