The director general of Frontex, the French Fabrice Leggeri, presented his resignation to the board of directors of the European border guard agency, in Warsaw. This was accepted on Friday 29 April. The European Commission said in a press release that the deputy director, Latvian Aija Kalnaja, would act as interim director until a successor is appointed. “Frontex must be a robust and efficient agency. The Commission will continue to [la] fully support in this mission”the statement said.
Fabrice Leggeri took over as head of the agency in January 2015 and his mandate was renewed in 2019. This 54-year-old enarque, a native of Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), has spent a large part of his career within the Ministry of the interior, in particular to the posts of sub-prefect. He also worked at the Ministry of Defense and was seconded to the European Commission in Brussels.
Frontex accused of illegal return of migrants
“I return my mandate”wrote Fabrice Leggeri in a brief letter addressed to the Frontex board of directors, Thursday, April 28, and made public by the collaborative media Lighthouse Reports. Meeting in an extraordinary way, this board of directors was to consider in particular a non-public report from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the result of a long investigation closed in February; OLAF is said to have recommended the opening of disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Leggeri, a recommendation which the Management Board, however, did not follow.
OLAF took an interest in acts of ” harassment “, of ” misbehavior “ and of “refoulement of migrants” at the external borders of the European Union (EU), according to the MEPs of the Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee, who had suspended the clearance of Frontex’s accounts in view of the “gravity” conclusions of the office, which had been presented to them. “Nothing was done about reports of fundamental rights abuses in Greece and Hungary’s migrant push back operations continued in 2020, despite a ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU finding them incompatible with European law, wrote the elected officials in a press release on March 31.
Already, in September 2021, MEPs had called for the freezing of part of Frontex’s 2022 budget, as long as the agency did not proceed with the recruitment of twenty fundamental rights officers, the establishment of a reporting mechanism serious incidents at the EU’s external borders and the creation of an operational system for monitoring fundamental rights.
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