The management of the external borders of the EU has become a vulnerable as well as contested policy: civil society organisations denounce the systemic violence occurring at the borders, involving both EU agencies and Member States’ authorities. Several European institutions and bodies scrutinise the activities of these agencies as well as their impact and effectiveness, and litigation against these agencies is gaining momentum.
This fiercely contested policy area is especially illustrated by the debate sparked over the operational mandate of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). Over the past years, Frontex has come under scrutiny following media and civil society allegations of breaches of fundamental rights under international and European law, including pushbacks, disrespect of its legal mandate, and a track record of poor transparency and limited accountability. This storm of official investigations and reports, concluded by the report of the EU Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), led to the resignation of the Frontex Executive Director, Fabrice Leggeri, in April 2022. Though undisclosed for months, the (eventually leaked) report eventually confirmed serious issues of mismanagement and of violations of the Frontex founding Regulation and operational rules, by its former Executive Director, casting doubts on the quality of the internal oversight on the Agency.
These emerging forms of transparency and accountability, which are the fruit of concerted efforts of civil society, investigative journalism and engaged academia, do raise important questions about the compliance and respect of the legal framework by agencies, in particular concerning the protection of fundamental rights at the external borders of the EU. Consequently, additional issues emerge as to possible accountability challenges and gaps. Other EU agencies, active in the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice (AFSJ), such as the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement (Europol), the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA), and the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems (EU-LISA), face similar gaps in accountability. The increasing inter-agency cooperation, namely the cooperation among EU migration agencies at the external borders of the EU, in the known hotspots, expands the significance of those gaps. Moreover, a plurality of actors appears on the stage of the external borders of the EU, including private companies and third-country administrations. Together with the increased digitalisation of external border controls (e.g. with the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), and its reliance on Artificial Intelligence technologies, the efforts to scrutinise the discretion exercised by those actors and their compliance with their legal obligations further complicate the legal landscape and the search for clear fundamental rights guarantees.
This project is important for society since it contributes to highlighting the shortcomings of the functioning of the most contested European Agency, Frontex, and to put forward solutions that can be employed to improve its record of compliance to the legal framework governing its operations, and also to improve the accountability gaps highlighted in its functioning.
