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Frontex in a nutshell

Border management within the European Union has undergone an evolution starting from nationally focused systems to operational cooperation at the external borders. National border security systems are nowadays being complemented by a unified set of effective tools to man-age potential risks at the external borders. Frontex - the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union - was created particularly to integrate national border security systems of Member States against all kind of threats that could happen on or through the external borders of the EU.

Frontex was established by Council Regulation (EC) 2007/2004 dated 26 October 2004 and its seat is Warsaw, Poland, as stipulated in Council Decision 2005/358/EC of 26 April 2005. Frontex is a community body having a legal personality as well as operational and budgetary autonomy. It is governed by its Management Board, which consists of operational heads of national border guard services.

Frontex, which became operational on 3 October 2005, promotes a pan European model of Integrated Border Management, which consists of five dimensions:

- border control, including relevant risk analysis and crime intelligence;

- detection and investigation of cross border crime in coordination with all competent law enforcement authorities;

- the four-tier access control model (measures in third countries, cooperation with neighbouring countries, border control, control measures within the area of free movement, including re-turn);

- inter-agency cooperation for border management (border guards, customs, police, national security and other relevant authorities) and international cooperation;

- coordination and coherence of the activities of Member States and Institutions and other bodies of the Community and the Union.

At the heart of all activities of the Agency is Carrying out risk analysis. Frontex assesses threats, looking at vulnerabilities, and weighing consequences. Thus the Agency has to balance and prioritise the resources against risks so that it can ensure the right amount of protection for Member States without under-protecting, but also without overprotecting.

Frontex provides for Coordination of operational cooperation between Member States in the field of management of external borders. Strengthening border security by ensuring the co-ordination of Member States’ actions in the implementation of Community measures is the main goal. To fulfil this task Frontex is seeking to introduce solutions allowing better allocation of Member States’ resources.

A further important issue for Frontex is Assistance to Member States in the training of national border guards, including the establishment of common training standards. The Common Core Curriculum developed by Frontex forms the basis of this system. This new European Curriculum is the first common curriculum including common skills and competencies for basic training of border guards across Europe. Apart from basics, Frontex develops also specialised training tools supporting operational activities such as helicopter pilots, falsified documents or dog handlers.

Following up the development of research relevant for the control and surveillance of external border. By carrying out this task, Frontex strengthens border control capabilities of the Member States through informing them of modern technologies and products available, as well as ensuring that specific interests of border guard authorities are properly taken into ac-count in security research.

Assistance to Member States in circumstances requiring increased technical and operational assistance at external borders. In order to support Member States in exceptional and urgent situations pre-positioned and pre-structured rapid intervention packages were created with the Regulation (EC) No 863/2007 of 11 July 2007 establishing Rapid Border Intervention Teams. These corps are composed of national Border Guards having the right to act on the territory of other Member States.

Providing Member States with the necessary support in organising joint return operations is the last but not the least challenge for Frontex. The role of the Agency in joint returns is rather limited and concentrated on assistance to Member States. Besides, Frontex, together with the national experts, is identifying best practices on the acquisition of travel documents and the removal of third country nationals staying illegally in the Member States.

Source: Public Relations Office of Frontex

Last updated 10 November, 2011