While rapporteur Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP, Czech) suggested on Monday 5 September in the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control that the executive director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) should be given discharge for the implementation of the Agency’s budget for 2020, the other political groups (S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA) were opposed.
Tomáš Zdechovský’s (second) report on the Frontex discharge for 2020, following the European Parliament’s decision to postpone the granting of the discharge (see EUROPE 12945/8), will be voted on by the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control on 6 October, ahead of a plenary vote during the 17-20 October session.
For Olivier Onidi of the Frontex Management Board, “not granting the discharge would be a signal of mistrust of the agency’s new team”. Joachim Kuhs (ID, German) said he was confident that “things will get back to normal” with the new management team.
The agency found itself in turmoil after the resignation of its director, Fabrice Leggeri.
Tomáš Zdechovský noted that five of the seven conditions for the green light on the landfill have been met. This is a “real success”, according to him.
Isabel García Muñoz (S&D, Spanish), on the other hand, said that the conditions for recruiting fundamental rights monitors and suspending Frontex’s support activities in Hungary had not been met.
Ramona Strugariu (Renew Europe, Romanian) called for the recruitment of not 46 but 80 fundamental rights monitors.
The Greens/EFA group refused to give Frontex a discharge on the 2020 budget.
EESC. Ms Muñoz, rapporteur on the discharge for the 2020 budget of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), recommended that the European Parliament give discharge to the EESC’s secretary-general for the implementation of the EESC’s 2020 budget, thanks to the actions undertaken in the fight against harassment and the action plan on staff recruitment. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)