On 27 October, the European Commission (EC) published a proposal to amend the Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).
The proposal sets out three priorities:
- More resources and operational capacity
- Gradually increase Frontex’s standing corps to 30,000 officers, including through the ‘European Border and Return Reserve’
- Easier access to state-of-the-art equipment and technology
- Stronger on returns
- ‘Return Coordination Centre’
- Capacity to support third countries on returns, both for technical and operational support
- Effective crisis response
- ‘Online Monitoring and Response Centre’
- ‘Quick Reaction Force’
- Improved information exchange in crisis situations
In addition to the proposal to reform Frontex, the EC has also published a proposal for a new regulation on the digitalisation of return, readmission and reintegration procedures across the EU.
According to an EC press release, the aim of the new regulation is to “modernise the handling of return cases, simplify and speed up administrative procedures through digitalisation, reduce administrative burden, and improve data collection and sharing”.
More information about the proposed European Border and Return Reserve, Return Coordination Centre, Online Monitoring and Response Centre and Quick Reaction Force are set out in an EC memo.
See below a selection of media articles about and NGO reactions to the recent proposals:
EU and international media
- POLITICO: EU lawmakers slam new border force powers to surveil social media (28 October)
- EUobserver: Frontex gets 17,000 extra officers for deportations while human-rights monitoring suffers downgrade (28 October)
- Brussels Times: EU border control: Expansion of Frontex staff and budget amid human rights concerns (28 October)
- InfoMigrants: Brussels proposes turning Frontex into the EU’s central returns agency (27 October)
- POLITICO: Frontex gets power to track migration talk on social media (27 October)
- Rapporteur: EU floats new powers for Frontex to tackle social media disinformation (27 October)
- Reuters: EU proposes major Frontex expansion, curbs internal rights oversight (27 October)
ECRE member organisations
- Amnesty International: EU: Frontex reform compounds risk of EU complicity in rights violations (28 October)
- PRO ASYL: Frontex soll mächtiger werden. Doch wer kontrolliert Europas Grenzschutz? (27 October)
Others
- Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance: Commission risks turning Frontex into European ICE (27 October)
- Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants: Our societies need serious investments in public services, not a new massive deportation machine (28 October)
- Protect not Surveil: EU transforms Frontex into a high-tech deportation command centre (27 October)
- Sea-Watch: While we protest for a better life, the EU plans to build its ICE (27 October)
See below ECRE’s recent comments and publications on Frontex:
- Editorial: Fronting up to Frontex (April 2021)
- Policy Paper: Holding Frontex to Account (May 2021)
- (with Amnesty International European Institutions Office and International Commission of Jurists) Joint Briefing on the Commission Proposal on the Rules for Frontex operations at sea (September 2013)
- (with Amnesty International European Institutions Office) Joint Briefing on the Commission Proposal amending the Frontex Regulation (September 2010)