Frontex

Frontex (from French: Frontières extérieures for "external borders") is an agency of the European Union established in 2004 to manage the cooperation between national border guards securing its external borders. Frontex operations aim to detect and stop illegal immigration, human trafficking and terrorist infiltration. The agency has its seat in Warsaw, Poland.

On 15 December 2015 the European Commission presented its proposal for a new European Border and Coast Guard Agency that would replace and succeed Frontex, having a stronger role and mandate and forming a European Border and Coast Guard along with national authorities for border management.

Responsibilities

Frontex was established by Council Regulation (EC) 2007/2004. It began work on 3 October 2005 and was the first EU agency to be based in one of the new EU member states from 2004. Frontex' mission is to help European Union member states implement EU rules on external border controls and to coordinate cooperation between member states in external border management. While it remains the task of each member state to control its own borders, Frontex is vested to ensure that they all do so with the same high standard of efficiency. The agency's main tasks according to the Council Regulation are: