Debate: FRONTEX's responsibility for fundamental rights violations at EU's external borders in light of the OLAF report
Date: MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2022
Speaker: Ylva Johansson
Language: EN

In particular, in the current difficult situation, with a high number of irregular migrants coming through the Western Balkan routes, we see how essential Frontex is, or when we read a report that on14 October, Hellenic police and Frontex rescued 92 naked migrants in the area of Evros. Right now, Frontex is undertaking briefings with the people concerned to establish the facts. This shows once more how important it is for Frontex to be present at our external borders. To achieve its objective, Frontex must be a robust and well-functioning agency, with the right governance and control systems in place, and it must have the right processes and staff at its disposal to uphold fundamental rights. My services have consistently worked together with the agency on this objective. This work started in the summer of 2020, when the first media reports on possible pushbacks in the Mediterranean appeared. The Commission has been instrumental in pushing forward the work of the Fundamental Rights Working Group of the Frontex management board. This work resulted in recommendations to the management board and Frontex in February 2021, which were endorsed by the management board in March 2021. Since then, the Commission representatives on the management board have worked closely with the board in order to implement the board’s conclusions, as well as the recommendations of the European Parliament’s Frontex Scrutiny Working Group. This has led to fundamental reforms in the agency structure and internal processes. The OLAF report in February this year confirmed many findings of the board’s working group. However, in addition, it identified personal misbehaviour and mismanagement of three members of the management staff of the agency, including its then executive director. This report was addressed to the management board of Frontex, as the appointing authority of the staff members in question, in line with the rules on OLAF investigations. My services cooperated closely with the board from the transmission of the report to the management board in February until the conclusion of the follow—up in June this year. As a result, the executive director of the agency resigned at the end of April from his function, as you know. Also, the second person concerned left agency in the meantime. The third person, who had fully cooperated with OLAF’s investigation, was assigned to a different function in the agency at his own request. I am aware that reading the report will have shocked many of you, just as it shocked me. But I am convinced that the management board of Frontex has assumed its responsibility fully and in a very efficient way. This has allowed the agency to continue to operate smoothly while working hard on remedying the remaining shortcomings identified by its control bodies, the board and the Frontex Scrutiny Working Group. Right now, we are in the process of recruiting the new executive director for Frontex, and I hope that this this new executive director will be appointed before the end of this year.