The European Commission recalled on Monday 8 March that the shortcomings identified in the Management Board’s report on the functioning of the Frontex European Coastguard and Border Guard Agency, published on 5 March, in particular those concerning the incident notification and reporting system (see EUROPE 12672/8), require “urgent improvements”.
The current incident reporting system does not allow for proper reporting of situations encountered and “not allow for a systematic analysis” of event that may involve violations of fundamental rights, commented Adalbert Jahnz, Spokesperson for Home Affairs.
On the evening of 5 March, the Frontex Management Board published its conclusions and also issued recommendations to remedy these shortcomings. The Management Board deplores and “notes with concern” that the current incident reporting system is “not systematically applied” and does not allow the Agency to have a “clear picture of facts” about potentially serious incidents. Nor does it “allow for a systematic analysis of fundamental rights concerns. The Agency needs to make urgent improvements in this respect”.
The Management Board reiterated its request to the Agency “revise its reporting system in order to make it more efficient, including by clearly documenting a detailed allocation of responsibilities within the agency and ensuring that all staff responsible (including the Fundamental Rights Officer) as well as the members of the Management Board can fully exercise their duties”, reads a press release.
It asks that “minimum requirements as to the qualification of the experts in the Frontex Situation Centre” (FSC) be set; that “Serious Incident Reports (on alleged violation of Fundamental Rights) are always reported to and assessed by the Fundamental Rights Officer”; and that “every Operational Plan include a transparent reporting mechanism”.
The group still asks that all actions undertaken in the framework of the EU regulation 656/2014 on rescue at sea be “comprehensively documented by video footage”. There is also a need to establish systematic monitoring of the reporting mechanism,but also “to clarify the relation between its system of protecting whistleblowers and the exceptional reporting under the Serious Incident Reports mechanism, ensuring that confidential reports from Frontex employees and team members are handled in an appropriate way, given prompt follow-up and that the protection of the identity is guaranteed”.
On the recruitment of 40 Fundamental Rights Officers, the Management Board continues to call for their immediate hiring. A first group of agents should be recruited at the beginning of April.
The Agency’s Executive Director, Fabrice Leggeri, will have to clarify and strengthen the way in which reports of serious incidents are handled and examined. The next meeting will take place in May.
Link to the conclusions: http://bit.ly/3rw4wI7 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)