Hans Leijtens appointed new head of Frontex

The board of EU border agency Frontex appointed Hans Leijtens as the new Executive Director in a closed session on Tuesday.

Leijtens is currently the Commander of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee and Governor of The Hague. He has worked in several leading positions at the highest management level in the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. Among others, he was a Director-General in the Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration, a Quartermaster of the Integrity Chamber in Sint Maarten, a Program Director-General of the reconstruction of the Windward Islands, and a member of the International Board of Auditors (NATO).

The board voted in a secret ballot on the three candidates shortlisted by the European Commission, taking into the account the opinion of the European Parliament, issued following a hearing of the candidates by the Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), Frontex said in a press release.

Leijtens is taking over from Frontex’s current interim executive director, Aija Kalnaja, who took over in 2018 after the previous executive director, Fabrice Leggeri, resigned amid revelations of abuse by the EU’s anti-fraud office, Olaf.