Frontex in deep water again after investigations
The EU border agency and its long-time director Fabrice Leggeri have long been under attack for covering up human rights violations. Just under a fortnight ago, Leggeri resigned amid investigations by the EU's anti-fraud agency Olaf. Europe's press discusses how the current structures serve to conceal responsibility.
Greece can't go on denying guilt forever
The cat-and-mouse game aimed at covering up illegal pushbacks will soon come to an end, the website News247 hopes:
“But the problem will not disappear into thin air. The refugee problem will not cease to exist just because it is 'inconvenient'. All this shows what a difficult situation our country is in as regards the refugee issue. It's time for the guilt-ridden European cover-up of the pushbacks in the Aegean to slowly come to the surface. And then the real culprits will not be able to share their responsibility with anyone. Everyone will point indifferently to our side. ... Our side, meaning Greece.”
Resignation mainly reveals contradictions
The EU authority cannot fulfil its mandate without the power to issue directives, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung notes:
“Frontex depends on good cooperation with the external border states. The national authorities, for their part, are in no way obliged to let anyone look over their shoulders. ... Europe's watchdogs - this is the simple truth - can only function as well as the member states allow them to. In the capitals, however, people seem to have long since come to terms with ugly scenes at the EU's external borders as long as migration is contained. In this respect, Leggeri's resignation is much more than a supposed liberating blow for Frontex. It is first and foremost an expression of a deep difference of opinion among the actors of the European project.”