Members of the EP committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) have an Exchange of views on FRONTEX. Statements Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board (Interactio) and by Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

exchange of views

meeting

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

migration and refugees in Europe (T)

LÓPEZ AGUILAR, Juan Fernando (S&D, ES)

death of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea (T)

Frontex

surveillance of the external borders of the EU (T)

LEGGERI, Fabrice (FR)

GAŠPERLIN, Marko (SI)

Exchange of views on FRONTEX - Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs: Statements Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board (Interactio) and by Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/16790353/I203461Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Original), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), OK, it'll be Mr. Marko Gasperlin, it'll be about seven minutes, then we will hear from director of the agency, eU borders and coastguard agency Frontex. And right after we open up the second round for questions and answers to both representatives of Frontex board and executive director, OK, let's get started with Mr. Gasperlin. You are there? yes, you are

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman, honourable members of the European Parliament. Let me introduce to you first. My name is Marko Gasperlin. I am assistant director of Slovenian Uniformed Police. I'm representing Slovenia in the management board. And now currently I am for the second mandate elected chair person of the Frontex Management Board.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, But as you know, in the management board of the agency, each member state and associated Schengen country has one representative, experts in the field of border management. And there are also two representatives of the Commission members of the management board. Then in the line with coordinates to the Regulation Management Board, is responsible for taking strategic decision of the agency in accordance with the regulation and in the regulation they are about over more than 30 quite concrete tasks task for the management board.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, Let me also emphasise that more external border management is, according to the EU, a key shared responsibility of member states and to the agency, and that these these relations very much defiance. Also the work of the agency and also the dynamic in the management board of the agency. With the new regulation in 2019, the amount on the task of the agency and consequently all of that management board increased enormous.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, And additionally, also with the standing [...], I would say, the paradigma of the work of the agency or the operational activities significantly changed. But for these changes, for this, we have to implement these changes quite a short time. How big this challenge was. Let me get this straight, only by one fact, a roadmap for the implementation of the EBCG 2.0 regulation, the new regulation which was prepared by the DG Home and the executive director of the agency.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, In the roadmap, there are more than 150 activities, which should be more than less implemented by the end of the year of total 2020. It was a very ambitious plan, however, or unfortunately, the implementation failed in the time of the pandemic crisis with significant restrictions and and additional challenges.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, So therefore, I can say that many of these tasks have been implemented, but there are still some pending issues or activities which should be implemented. But each and every delay, I'm sure that executive director or myself, we can explain the reasons for these delay. Very brief about the management board first. Management Board has to adopt the new rules of procedure, since the old rules of procedure mean we wouldn't have been able to manage the new tasks.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, We thank [...] had to manage to establish executive board for the first time in the history of the Frontex executive board of the Management Board was established in December, and this executive board is now taking big part of responsibility. And now to say that is the way how we can ensure the function of the management board.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, And besides this, we also decided to strengthen the Secretariat of the Management Board because now we have only two administrative staff in the executive board. But in the near future, we have five altogether, five colleagues also able to advise the chairperson and executive board of the management board.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, One more fact, maybe in the regulation is the definition that management board should hold at least two or three meetings in a year, but think the reality for the last year we plan five regular meetings of management boards. But on the end we had nine altogether, nine M.B meetings decided, five ordinary, four extraordinary, and you can imagine that the average number of the agenda items for the board is between 20 and 30.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, A few more accents regarding the already today mention to the strengthening of the role of the fundamental rights in the agency and its activities. Yes, regulation defines the new position of the fundamental rights officer at the managerial post, then the deputy fundamental rights officer, fundamental rights monitors adoption of the mechanism to ensure the independency of the fundamental rights monitors and fundamental rights officer and the things that the implementation of this part of the regulation become even more complicated.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, The current fundamental rights officer was or is and the sick leave for quite a long time. So we have to talk to appoint from the interim. And so that's but now we are slowly coming through to the final and desired results also in this area. I can explain more or also in this regard.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, A few sentences regarding the standing corps. As I already said, the standing up is something new in the regulation. But I would say I would say also for the EU beside the category 1 and two, that means the staff from the member states, which was, let's say that the only force in the past for the operational activities. Now we get also the category 1.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, There is a statutory staff of the agency for which we should ensure that the police powers, the trainings, the legal basis that they can become a real part of the standing corps, standing corps can only function if all three categories are approximately on the same level. And what was, let's say, in the member states, a result of that? Several years of development of the historical development we had to ensure in the agency within one year.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, So I can I can say that we implemented all the tasks that we should according to the regulation. But first part of the standing corps is ready, is already operational and further deployments or further employment are on going. And the last segment I would like to mention is the new organisational structure of the agency.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Marko GAŠPERLIN, Chairperson of the Frontex Management Board, Yes, we had to adopt in the management board new organisation or structure, which to me deputy executive directors, we made a significant and significant progress also in this regard, although the final stage of the implementation is still in front of us.So this is from my side for the introduction, but I will be happy to answer on your questions if I can. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Juan Fernando LÓPEZ AGUILAR (S&D, ES), Thank you, Mr Marko Gasperlin, chair of the Management Board of the Frontex agency. I didn't want to interrupt, Mr. Gasperlin, but please colleagues, those of you who are entertained with such a lively talk, you're keeping us from following properly the speech by Mr Gasperlin, which was worth noticing. So we expect you to be silent while we hear from director Leggeri. You have the floor.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and honourable members of the Parliament, Madam Commissioner, deat Marko, chair of the Management Board. Ladies and gentlemen. I would like to first brief you on the implementation of the standing corps, and I will try to answer the questions that have been already raised.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, Currently, we have approximately 1200 people on the ground which are protecting the external borders of the European Union. Category 1 staff, so EU employees of the agency, we have currently more than 500 staff. Most of them have been already trained, although we still have one batch being trained in Bari, Italy and another one in Avilla in Spain.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, We have category 2 staff from the member states accounted for two years with the possibility to be extended up to four years. In this category, we have close to 400 staff deployed. And in the category 3, we have 92 % of the nominations that have been made already by the member states. So we can say that from that perspective, we are not far from the objective. There is an objective to have 700 category 1 staff in place in 2021.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, That is why we are launching recruitment from the reserve list. That is that we have extensive a reserve list that were created between October 2019 and spring 2020. And we will pick from the reserve list the relevant categories and profiles. So up to 200 more will be picked as of March this year to complement the category 1 standing corps. We also plan the training for this category is supposed to start in June and they will be fully ready for deployment at the end of this year, 2021.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, There is also for this year the recruitment of the ETIAS staff. You may know or may remember that they are staff of the standing corps as well. So far we have 9, but this is normal because the central unit of ETIAS is being built and so far we don't need to have more. What we need to have is by the end of this year, 80 ETIAS staff in total and we are launching the recruitment for that.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, We are also planning a second launch of a recruitment in Q2 2021 with the objective to recruit up to 300 staff that will join the agency in the course of 2022 with afterwards a training of 11 month. I would like also to say on the fundamental rights, Marko Gasperlin announced that the monitors are being recruited right now. The fundamental rights officer expects to offer the first contracts at the end of March or beginning of April.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, The fundamental rights officer will be appointed by the management board normally next week. And the deputy fundamental rights officer is also in the face of the of the recruitment will be recruited afterwards. We also have when it comes to the fundamental rights, we have reinforced our fundamental rights framework with the consultative forum. We have also more focussed group.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, We are considering how to reinforce the complaint mechanism. And to answer a question that has been raised to me, we have with the fundamental rights officer and her staff experts in fundamental rights that deliver training so that they are part of the training process of the category 1 staff. And in general, they are also training category 2 staff on fundamental rights.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, Then about the deployment and the use of force. I think this is a very important topic. Also, including in terms of accountability, discipline that has to be established for the staff. I am talking about the category 1 staff to the EU employees wearing the blue uniform of the European Union and which are Frontex employees.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, We have indeed faced some legal difficulties because it was needed to fine tune the legal framework to acquire weapons. It was clear for the non-lethal weapons, but it was not clear for the firearms. So we got from the Commission in the end of 2020 a legal reply. In between, the agency has also engaged in talks with our host member state, Poland and Poland accepted to amend its national law in order to combine it with the EU regulation so that without any doubt, Frontex, with the seat in Warsaw in Poland, can acquire weapons firearms.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, We have also reached an agreement with Greece in terms of a bridging solution until the procurement can supply the weapons we need. And this should happen in summer of 21. And we are sending letters to other hosting member states of our operation to find a similar bridging solution until summer 21 to have the firearms for the category 1 staff. Here, I want to say that the management board adopted the supervision mechanism, which will supervise the use of force.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, The use of force is not an incident. It is any use of force. And they are strict definitions in compliance with the EU law. The inspection and control office of the agency will play an important role, but the fundamental rights officer will be in the loop of the information after any use of force. The training is ongoing on the supervision mechanism. The management board also adopted the management decision on the system for the executive director to grant the weapons permit.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, Here we are still in consultations with member states because we need background information about the nationals of their member state or the residents because we need to check if there are criminal records and so on. So we are in the process of vetting the category 1 staff so that we can deploy them with the use of force as soon as they are properly vetted by the member states.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, But this shows that there is a need to really improve the accountability system. The fundamental rights I have already talked about it, the disciplinary framework. And we will definitely learn the lessons from the working group of the management board and also from your scrutiny group. Definitely, we have many lessons to learn and we are ready to to implement them.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, There is a report on the implementation of the recommendations that I tabled to the management board on the 19th of February. And there will be an ongoing monitoring process on how the agency is improving. For example, the serious incident report is ready the new system and will be implemented very soon.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, Now, how to use the standing court. And I think this is a very important question also for political institutions, in particular in terms of democratic control by the European Parliament. We have so far joined operations. We have so far operational plans. But it is clear that with the ambition of having ten thousand staff in the European standing corps by the end of 2027, we have a lot of manpower

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, And we proposed a catalogue of services for the member states and we have ongoing meetings for the member states to pick the services they would like to have. It is not only for the frontline member states such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and maybe some others is for all member states of the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, And here I fully concur with what Commissioner Johansson said when she said it's not only about migration management, of course there is an important role in terms of migration management return, but it's also about fighting against criminal activities at the external borders, prevention of terrorism. And these are areas where definitely the standing corps can make a difference, in particular, where we have spotted vulnerabilities in the context of the vulnerability assessment.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, And we can provide support to the member states who need support in order to have well functioning external borders. With the Pact on asylum and migration, definitely Frontex and the standing corps will be able to support the member states with screening procedures, the use of database if the e-legislation is adjusted to give us the competences to do so. And of course, with return.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, As a conclusion, I can say that we are rolling out the implementation of the European border and Coast Guard Regulation 2.0, although this is for some delays due to covid-19, as this was said by Marko Gasperlin and also due to some legal uncertainties that we had to clarify. First, I would like to say here that what we observe is that we need more rules. We need to have a common understanding on certain implementing rules that the legal the legislation is clear.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, It was adopted by the EU legislature. But we need implementing measures that most of them are adopted by the management board. Some of them are adopted by implementing act from the commission. But what is at stake and I can see it daily now with the reporting system, with the disciplinary system that we need to have in place, we need to have more implementing measures, because what we have now to manage is something completely new in a European administration.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Fabrice LEGGERI, Frontex Executive Director, We are a fully fledged EU agency, no doubt about that. But we are also more and more a fully fledged European law enforcement force. And we have to cope with those dual natures. And I think it's fortunate and good that the European Parliament now dedicated to have a scrutiny group that in the long run will also be able to feel better ownership, political ownership of this phenomenon. And I am ready, again, as I said, to implement the recommendations and also to seek guidance. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.