Warning over new Frontex agency's data-gathering powers, lack of accountability and overseas deployments without oversight 1.7.16

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With the full European Parliament due to vote on the proposed new Frontex Regulation on 6 July, the Frontexit campaign has called on MEPs to reject the text, warning that it provides new powers to gather and exchange personal data without the necessary safeguards; establishes a new complaint mechanism that does not meet the required standards of independence; and permits increased overseas deployments by the agency "away from any oversight by the European Parliament or national parliaments."

 

See the press release: More dangerous, more opaque, more powerful (Migreurop, link): "On 6 July, the European Parliament, meeting in plenary, will approve the replacement of Frontex by a European border-guards and coast-guards body. This new agency will actually turn out to be a reinforced version of Frontex agency with more powers, still lacking independent control over its activities, if not human rights violations occurring during operations it is coordinating."

The Frontexit campaign has also produced a short analysis of the proposed new Regulation: A European border-guards and a coast-guards agency Concerns about proposed mandate for a « new Frontex » (pdf): "For over 10 years, by reinforcing its quasi-military apparatus, the EU has shown how incapable it was to address the reception and international protection needs, thereby endangering the lives of migrants and refugees with no regard for law or even the value it pretends to stand for. This new mandate is a strong political signal emblematic of an obsession with security based on the rejection of foreigners and racist prejudice."

And see the consolidated text agreed "informally" towards the end of June by negotiators from the Parliament and the Council, and approved by the parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on 27 June: REGULATION (EU) 2016/… OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of on the European Border and Coast Guard and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2007/2004, Regulation (EC) No 863/2007 and Council Decision 2005/267/EC and amending Regulation (EU) 2016/399 (pdf)

Background: Regulation on a European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Statewatch European Monitoring and Documentation Centre)

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