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1. The Agency shall be headed by a Director appointed by the Management Board in accordance with a cooperation (concertation) procedure provided for in paragraph 2. The Director shall be appointed on the basis of his or her personal merit, experience in the field of fundamental rights and administrative and management skills.

2. This cooperation procedure shall be as follows:

(a) on the basis of a list drawn up by the Commission after a call for candidates and a transparent selection procedure, applicants will be asked before an appointment is made to address the Council and the competent European Parliament Committee and to reply to questions;

(b) the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union will then give their opinions and state their orders of preference;

(c) the Management Board will appoint the Director taking these opinions into account.

3. The Director’s term of office shall be five years. In the course of the 12 months preceding the end of that five-year period, the Commission shall carry out an evaluation in order to assess in particular:

(a) the performance of the Director;

(b) the Agency’s duties and requirements in the coming years.

The Management Board, acting on a proposal from the Commission, taking into account the evaluation, may extend the term of office of the Director once for no more than five years. The Management Board shall inform the European Parliament and the Council about its intention to extend the Director’s term of office. Within a period of one month before the Management Board formally takes its decision to extend that term of office, the Director may be asked to make a declaration before the competent committee of the European Parliament and to answer questions from its members. If his or her term of office is not extended, the Director shall remain in office until the appointment of his or her successor.

4. The Director shall be responsible for:

(a) the performance of the tasks referred to in Article 4 and in particular the preparation and publication of the documents drawn up in accordance with Article 4(1), points (a) to (h) in cooperation with the Scientific Committee;

(b) the preparation and implementation of the Agency’s programming document referred to in Article 5a;

(c) matters of day-to-day administration;

(d) the implementation of decisions adopted by the Management Board;

(e) the implementation of the Agency’s budget, in accordance with Article 21;

(f) the implementation of effective monitoring and evaluation procedures relating to the performance of the Agency against its objectives in accordance with professionally recognised standards and performance indicators;

(g) the preparation of an action plan to follow up on the conclusions of retrospective evaluations assessing the performance of programmes and activities that entail significant spending, in accordance with Article 29 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/715;

(h) reporting annually to the Management Board on the results of the monitoring and evaluation system;

(i) the preparation of an anti-fraud strategy for the Agency and its presentation to the Executive Board for approval;

(j) the preparation of an action plan to follow up on the conclusions of internal or external audit reports and evaluations, as well as investigations by OLAF and reporting on progress to the Commission and the Management Board;

(k) cooperation with national liaison officers;

(l) cooperation with civil society, including coordination of the Fundamental Rights Platform in accordance with Article 10.

5. The Director shall perform his/her tasks independently. He or she shall be accountable for the management of his/her activities to the Management Board and shall participate in its meetings without voting rights.

6. The Director may be called upon at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council to attend a hearing on any matter linked to the Agency's activities.

7. The Director may be dismissed before his or her term has expired by the decision of the Management Board, on the basis of a proposal of two thirds of its members or of the Commission, in the event of misconduct, unsatisfactory performance or recurring or serious irregularities.