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Frontex is experiencing some turbulence. Fabrice Leggeri, director of the European Border and Coast Guard, handed in his resignation on 29 April. He had served two mandates and more than seven years as its head, but found himself the subject of multiple complaints concerning his management of the agency.
The decision comes after the first findings of the investigation led by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), concerning accusations of harassment, bad behaviour and expulsions at EU borders.
OLAF’s case was itself triggered by revelations about the agency's activities in the Aegean Sea, discovered in an investigation by the journalistic collective Lighthouse Reports, in partnership with Der Spiegel, Le Monde, SRF and Republik.
Frontex, whose mandate has expanded considerably since its creation in 2004, has been the subject of criticism for several years, whether from journalists, non-governmental organisations or MEPs concerned with the agency's activities, size and growing impunity.
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