The Evolving Role of FRONTEX in Implementing an EU Comprehensive Approach on Security

FRONTEX has been a main axis of the EU’s multilayer policy towards enhancing the comprehensive European framework on security. Its evolving role was a sine qua non in the EU’s effort to deal with newly emerging threats in its periphery and the way they ha

  • PDF / 601,573 Bytes
  • 9 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
  • 0 Downloads / 213 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT


Abstract FRONTEX has been a main axis of the EU’s multilayer policy towards enhancing the comprehensive European framework on security. Its evolving role was a sine qua non in the EU’s effort to deal with newly emerging threats in its periphery and the way they have affected its actual ability to respond. Its operating has faced multiple challenges stemming from differentiated sources. This very fact makes coordination an indispensable tool for the application of a policy that brings the desired outcome.

1 Introduction FRONTEX is a European organization mandated, from the very beginning, to manage the operations and establish co-operation at the external borders of the EU (Frontex 2018; Coman-Kund 2018, pp. 164–166) in an international environment characterized by multiple crises requiring increased funding of humanitarian response as shown in Fig. 1. Its role has been complemented by services associated with the European border guard and coastguard agency (Perkowski 2019, p. 1192). FRONTEX is not just dealing with its initial primary aim of fighting illegal migration but also with any kind of criminal activity taking place at the external border of the EU (Baldwin-Edwards 2008).1 These include observation issues related to administrative regulations such as fisheries, control, environmental protection, customs, drug smuggling and other serious dangers associated with major organized crime (Iljina 2019). It is also worth noting here the important role of Frontex in the process of making the external dimension of Justice and Home Affairs more operational through certain projects and related programs (Wolff 2017, p. 374).

1

For an overall approach.

G. Vourekas (*) FRONTEX, Warsaw, Poland e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 G. Voskopoulos (ed.), European Union Security and Defence, Contributions to Political Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48893-2_8

119

120 Fig. 1 Humanitarian Response Plans 2016, UN OCHA Financial Tracking Service (2016) cited in European Parliamentary Research Service Blog (2016)

G. Vourekas

Muslims

Non-Muslims 390,000

90,000

80,000 30,000

mid-2010 to 2013

2014 to mid-2016

2 The Operational Map A reference to past and on-going operations will provide a thorough insight of the established operational framework. They are based on the fact that we invite all member states to contribute with assets and personnel. These human recourses and assets offered by member states come under our control; they become the backbone of our planned operations for our activities on land, at sea and in the air (including airports). Particular focus should be given to sea operations, where we face serious setbacks. It is evident that the major problem for Europe comes from the sea. In the Aegean Sea and in the western and eastern Mediterranean, the EU is facing problems with migration, illegal fishing, drug trafficking, arms and tobacco smuggling. In central Mediterranean, the big