The Executive Director of Frontex welcomed the establishment
of a Management Board Working Group on Fundamental Rights and Legal and
Operational Aspects of Operations.
Frontex has proposed to update the reporting mechanism for
serious incidents to assure that no potential violation of fundamental rights
within the agency’s operational activities goes unreported.
“We have now completed
two important stages of looking into allegations of so-called pushbacks in the
Eastern Mediterranean by conducting our own internal inquiry and replying to
further questions from the Management Board,” said Frontex Executive Director
Fabrice Leggeri.
“The working group will review the implementation of the
existing Serious Incident Reporting mechanism and discuss possible operational
responses to situations related to ‘hybrid threats’ to Member States’ national
security at the external borders, wherever we are physically present and have
an operational footprint,” he added.
In addition, the working group will help to clarify the
interpretation of the legal framework under which maritime operations
coordinated by Frontex are performed, also in the context of growing hybrid
threats.
Below please find the statement by the Chairperson of the
Frontex Management Board
Statement
of the Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board from its 82nd meeting
The
Management Board of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) met
yesterday and today for its 82nd meeting.
Among other topics, the Board followed up on the fundamental-rights related
discussions from its extraordinary meeting held on 10 November 2020 and in
particular on the allegations of so-called pushbacks in the Eastern
Mediterranean recently reported in the media. These discussions were held in
the presence of the Agency’s Fundamental Rights Officer, the Agency’s
Consultative Forum, the Fundamental Rights Agency and an expert from the LIBE
Committee of the European Parliament.
The
Executive Director reported on the questions received from several members of
the Board and provided some preliminary replies. On request by the European
Commission, the Board will hold a further extraordinary meeting within the next
two weeks in order to consider in more detail the replies provided by the
Agency. As concluded in the extraordinary meeting of 10 November, the
Management Board adopted the mandate of its dedicated working group. It shall
support the Board in its conduction of inquiries in relation to the allegations
of so-called alleged pushbacks in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2020 but also
contribute to the interpretation of some provisions of Union regulations
related to operational activities at sea and to discuss possible operational
responses to situations related to “hybrid threats” to Member States’ national
security at the external borders which may arise in the context of maritime
operations of the Agency. The Working Group was requested to report to the
Management Board at the 83rd meeting of the Management Board on 20-21 January
2021.
The
Management Board was also updated on the state of play for the preparation of
the EBCG standing corps for their first deployment as of 1 January 2021. The
Chair called on the Agency and Member States to make all the efforts to
complete their contributions to the standing corps in accordance with the
capacities indicated in Annex 1 of the EBCG Regulation for year 2021.