MEPs block Frontex budget after serious misconduct revealed

The European Parliament has refused to give its approval for the budget of Frontex, the border and coast guard agency.

345 MEPs voted in favour of the committee recommendation to refuse discharge to Frontex, 284 voted against (in favour of granting discharge) and 8 abstained.

MEPs have criticised the “magnitude of the committed serious misconduct” under the previous executive director of the agency, who resigned on 28 April 2022, following the release of a revealing report by the EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF. The agency failed to protect the fundamental rights of migrants and asylum seekers and, according to media report, was involved in the illegal pushbacks of at least 957 refugees between March 2020 and September 2021, Parliament says.

A classified report by EU anti-fraud office Olaf has also accused Frontex, the EU border agency, of covering up human rights violations in Greece. The report was made public by German media. It comes after a months-long investigation into allegations that Greek border officials were conducting pushbacks – preventing people from exercising their right to claim asylum and returning them to another state or abandoning them at sea.

In a statement, the Greens which had pushed for this debate welcomed the result of the vote, highlighting that “Frontex is the most EU-funded agency” and accusing the Commission of “turning a blind eye” to the human rights abuses carried out at the border in a petition.

The group called on the EU’s executive to take countries in which such abuses have been recorded to the EU Court of Justice and to withhold funding. The Greens noted that Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Spain as member states in which “threats, physical violence, assault and abuse during detention or transportation” have been observed.

The Left also welcomed this decision.

The European Parliament has welcomed the appointment of the new interim Frontex director in July 2022, the corrective actions already taken or planned and the positive changes with respect to fundamental rights. They salute the new management style within the agency, which tries to make it a safe place “where people are not afraid to speak up about possible wrongdoings”, while noting that the problems at the agency might be of a deeper “structural” nature and go beyond the failings of individuals. This point was stressed by many MEPs during the plenary debate on Frontex’s responsibility for fundamental rights violations on the EU’s external borders. Many others, at the same time, argued in favour of granting discharge, by pointing to the ongoing reforms in Frontex and progress towards fulfilling conditions that Parliament had made in the previous discharge report.

MEPs regretted that Frontex has not implemented some of the conditions set out in Parliament’s previous discharge reports. In particular, they demand that Frontex’s support for return-related activities in Hungary be immediately suspended, given the rule of law situation in the country. With regard to Greece, they are deeply concerned about the recent revelations that the former Frontex leadership was aware of people being illegally pushed back in the country and supported and participated in financing this. MEPs urge the Commission to ensure that this does not happen again.