EU Boots on the Ground and Effective Judicial Protection against Frontex’s Operational Powers in Return: Lessons from Case T‑600/21

Abstract This article comments on Case T-600/21 to highlight the serious shortcomings in direct actions before EU courts against allegations of fundamental rights violations by Frontex. It contributes to existing scholarship on legal accountability failings with regard to operational activities by Frontex for two reasons. First, the contribution argues that Frontex’s operational competences in the area of return are clearly circumscribed, not only by the Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, but also by crucial substantive and procedural safeguards contained in the Return Directive. Secondly, the article proposes a number of changes to current remedies against executive action of Frontex, in particular with regard to evidentiary requirements and the qualification of the EU conduct amenable to review. It argues that Article 47 of Charter, as interpreted by the Court of Justice itself, puts that same court under a clear and unequivocal obligation to adapt its own procedures accordingly in order to protect the very core of the right to effective judicial protection, namely access to courts.