The European Parliament narrowly decided, on Thursday 21 October in Strasbourg (371 votes in favour, 313 against and 11 abstentions), to grant discharge to the executive director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) for the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the 2019 financial year.
The European Parliament adopted in plenary (558 votes in favour, 82 against and 46 abstentions) the report by Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland) which accompanies the decision giving discharge to Frontex on the implementation of its 2019 budget.
The European Parliament had decided in April to postpone the discharge, in particular after the publication of reports on the potential involvement of the EU agency in illegal pushbacks at the EU’s external borders (see EUROPE 12807/4).
MEPs, who were divided on the issue of granting discharge, called on Frontex to “ensure that it respects all fundamental rights obligations in the implementation of integrated border management, both in strategic and operational activities”.
Frontex will have to inform the Parliament regularly “about the implementation of its recommendations and ongoing operations, including serious incidents of fundamental rights violations at the external borders and the way (it) responded to them”.
Conditionality. The budgetary authority (European Parliament and EU Council) is invited to freeze part of the Agency’s budgetary appropriations for 2022 which can only be made available when the following conditions are met: - the recruitment of the remaining 20 Fundamental Rights Monitors; - the recruitment of three Deputy Executive Directors; - the establishment of an appropriate Serious Incident Reporting mechanism; - the establishment of a fully functional fundamental rights monitoring system.
By adopting a Greens/EFA amendment, the European Parliament added a new condition, namely the suspension of the Agency’s operations supporting the return of illegal migrants from Hungary, “as long as, as concluded by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the return decisions taken by the Hungarian authorities are incompatible with the Return Directive and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights” (see EUROPE 12625/30).
In the debate on Thursday morning, the EPP group refuted the involvement of Frontex in cases of human rights violations.
The Identity and Democracy Group supported the work of the Agency, while politicising the debate to call for, among other things, “the erection of physical barriers at the external borders of the Union, to enable Frontex to carry out its mandate properly”.
Strong criticism. The Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spain), said the European Parliament should not grant discharge.
The Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties recalled that the Agency’s budget has been substantially increased from €118 million in 2011 to €460 million in 2020 and to an annual average of €900 million for the period 2021-2027.
The EU Court of Auditors concluded that “it is very likely that the Agency will have difficulties in implementing the mandate given to it by the 2019 Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard” (see EUROPE 12735/8).
“It is clear that Frontex has made progress in implementing your recommendations. It is also clear that more needs to be done”, said Ylva Johansson, the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs. She recalled that the reports of the Court of Auditors, the EU Ombudsman and the Frontex Management Board’s Working Group on Fundamental Rights also “identify significant shortcomings in the agency’s governance”.
And the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) is conducting an investigation and “we are awaiting its report”, the Commissioner added. “Frontex must take action. This has been the position of the Commission from day one”, said Ms Johansson in her speech (https://bit.ly/3C2adCN ).
MEPs on the left of the Parliament called for real human rights safeguards and effective and transparent control mechanisms in the Agency.
Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany) spoke of problems with legal reimbursements within Frontex, the unfulfilled obligation to appoint 40 fundamental rights monitors and the fact that Frontex has ignored cases of human rights violations. The discharge must be postponed, so that we can have an agency that finally deserves its name, she concluded.
“Frontex is an agency that is out of control and, as parliamentarians, we cannot accept it”, said Maria Arena (S&D, Belgium).
Sira Rego (The Left, Spain) spoke about the new complaints against Frontex before the EU Court of Justice. “Frontex accumulates violence against people. This is a scandal, this agency must be dismantled!”, she said.
Several MEPs noted that the Renew Europe group had changed its position, now supporting the granting of discharge for the implementation of the Agency’s 2019 budget. Members of the centre-right group did, in fact, do so, while stating the efforts that remain to be made and the need to await the results of OLAF’s investigations.
Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Netherlands) said Frontex had failed in its mission to manage borders in full respect of fundamental rights. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)