Frontex saga offers chance to shift EU migration politics

The EU’s embattled border and coast guard agency is back under the spotlight as it faces a European parliament investigation into alleged illegal pushbacks of migrants from Europe’s shores, as well as a probe by the bloc’s anti-fraud watchdog.

Frontex, which began life 15 years ago as one of the EU’s more obscure agencies, is now at the forefront of defending what critics have branded the bloc’s “Fortress Europe” migration policy. It has also become a focal point of wider claims that the EU’s external border management does not sufficiently protect fundamental rights, amid multiple reports of refugees being pushed out of member state waters under the agency’s watch. 

Frontex’s defenders and detractors were brought together in the parliament this week in the first meeting of an MEP scrutiny group designed to investigate the spate of allegations. These include alleged complicity with pushbacks as well as a probe by the EU anti-fraud agency Olaf, the scope of which has not been publicly divulged. 

Frontex has said an Olaf raid on its Warsaw headquarters in December does not “imply any malpractice”. The agency’s management board has also said preliminary findings from eight out of 13 alleged pushback cases show there was no “evidence of fundamental rights violations”.

Political divisions in the parliament over Frontex reflect broader splits within the EU about the future of the bloc’s tough migration policy. Rightwing parties have dominated the narrative since the political crisis triggered by a sharp rise in refugee arrival numbers in the EU in 2015-16. 

Roberta Metsola, the centre-right MEP who chairs the parliamentary scrutiny group, said the legislature’s four-month-long investigation was not designed to “attack the credibility of the external border management agency”.

“This investigation will not question the wider migration policy of the union”, Metsola told the Brussels Briefing.

By contrast, MEPs from left-leaning parties have led the charge for tougher mechanisms to protect fundamental rights. They want to move away from what they see as an unhealthy fixation on restrictive border management in favour of a more humanitarian approach.

They have also demanded the resignation of Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri, with socialists in the parliament decrying his position as “untenable”. Ylva Johansson, EU home affairs commissioner, criticised Leggeri at a closed-door meeting with MEPs this week. 

The Frenchman’s supporters said going after his scalp would be cheap point-scoring and would not address systemic questions about the agency’s internal workings and operations. His opponents contend that many of Frontex’s alleged failings can be attributed to mismanagement as the agency’s budget has soared to fund a standing uniformed border force corps of 10,000 intended to be deployed by 2027.

Immigration has fallen off the political agenda in many EU countries as far-right parties have seen diminishing returns from anti-migrant rhetoric in recent years. Whether forces on the left or the greens can seize this opportunity to shift fundamentally the politics of migration in Europe is another matter. 

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News in Europe

• AstraZeneca will fail to meet its EU vaccine delivery targets for the second quarter, delivering less than half of its promised jabs, Reuters reports, citing an EU official. The drugmaker has been embroiled in a public spat with Brussels over a big shortfall in the first-quarter supplies the bloc had expected. AstraZeneca is now projected to deliver less than 90m doses in the second quarter, down from 180m doses the company committed to delivering to the bloc. AstraZeneca said in a statement that its most recent second-quarter forecast for vaccine supply “aims to deliver in line with its contract with the European Commission”. “At this stage, AstraZeneca is working to increase productivity in its EU supply chain and to continue to make use of its global capability in order to achieve delivery of 180m doses to the EU in the second quarter,” it said.

• With reports of some Germans eschewing the AstraZeneca vaccine, Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on how “hundreds of thousands” of doses have been left unused in the country as authorities struggle to book appointments for at-risk groups. European Council president Charles Michel has written to EU leaders ahead of Thursday’s virtual summit calling for a scaling-up of vaccine production and faster delivery.

• Brussels has sent warning letters to six member states, including Belgium and Germany, for imposing overly-restrictive cross-border travel rules. The recipients have 10 days to respond to the European Commission to justify the measures but Brussels is unlikely to take any further legal action. In Belgium, pressure is growing to lift a ban on non-essential travel, with the health minister describing it as “difficult to maintain”. (Reuters/Brussels Times)

• Vince Muscat, one of three alleged hitmen charged with planting the bomb that killed Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, has pleaded guilty to her murder. Prime Minister Robert Abela said the case was evidence that the rule of law had “prevailed”. (EU Observer, Times of Malta)

• A committee of MEPs has voted to recommend lifting the immunity of three Catalan leaders and sitting MEPs, including Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain for Belgium in 2017. The parliament’s legal affairs committee on Tuesday voted 15-to-8 to remove immunity that is afforded to MEPs. The motion will only pass if the parliament’s plenary backs it in an early March vote. (VRT)

• The Association of British Insurers has urged ministers to deviate from EU regulations and lower the level of capital that insurers need to hold in the UK. The changes would be the UK’s first big departure from EU’s financial rules since it left the bloc’s single market less than two months ago. (FT)

Coming up today

The European Commission will publish recommendations on how to give labour protections for “gig economy” workers. Sarah O’Connor writes that the likes of Uber should not be left to dictate regulations for platform workers. Brussels will also unveil its vision for how to reach new 2030 carbon emission targets around midday (CET).

mehreen.khan@ft.com; @mehreenkhn
david.hindley@ft.com