EU refuses to approve Frontex’s budget over human rights concerns

European Parliament voted by 22-3 to postpone signing off the border agency’s budget until concerns get addressed.

European Union lawmakers on Tuesday refused to sign off on the budget of the EU’s border and coast guard agency over concerns about allegations of rights violations, hiring failures and harassment by senior Frontex staff. The European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee voted by 22-3, with five abstentions, to postpone its endorsement of Frontex’s 2019 budget “until additional clarifications are brought on a series of issues”. Frontex, which supervises the outside borders of the 27-nation EU, is under pressure following a series of allegations that it was involved in the illegal pushbacks of migrants, notably in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey.