The European Parliament decided on Tuesday 18 October to refuse to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), Aija Kalnaja, on the implementation of the agency’s 2020 budget.
345 MEPs voted in favour of the European Parliament Committee on Budgetary Control’s recommendation to refuse to grant discharge. 284 voted against the recommendation (i.e. were in favour of granting discharge) and 8 abstained (see EUROPE 13037/23).
Almost all members of the Renew Europe (except two), S&D (except 6), Greens/EFA and The Left groups supported the ‘no’ to the discharge. Only 10 EPP MEPs voted in favour of refusing the discharge.
MEPs from the EPP, ECR and ID groups voted overwhelmingly in favour of the discharge.
In adopting the report by Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP, Czech) on this discharge, the European Parliament said that, with regard to the report by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), it was “very concerned about the findings of the investigation and the extent of the serious misconduct and other irregularities found” (see other news).
The European Parliament points out that in April 2022, a new investigation showed that the agency was involved in the illegal pushback of at least 957 refugees between March 2020 and September 2021.
MEPs have expressed their shock about the suicide of a member of the agency’s staff in connection with alleged sexual harassment practices and note that 17 cases of sexual harassment were reported in 2020, 15 of which were closed without action.
The European Parliament welcomes the “positive change” in management style introduced by Aija Kalnaja, who has pledged to change the organisational culture of Frontex by promoting a team-based approach in which “agents are not afraid to speak out about possible wrongdoing”.
Furthermore, the European Parliament gave discharge for the 2020 expenditure of the European Economic and Social Committee and refused discharge for the EU Council and European Council budget. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)