EU Border Management

Against the background of the migration and refugee crisis, the EU agency Frontex seeks to reinforce external border control. In doing so, Frontex is expected to collaborate with other EU agencies such as the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) or the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). Despite these high expectations, not much is known how the cooperation among these EU agencies actually is. Interestingly, this also holds true for academic research. While EU scholars have analysed numerous functional, political as well as normative aspects of EU agencies in recent years, they have largely ignored the phenomenon of horizontal interaction among EU agencies. It is the main objective of the project to understand the nature and impact of the interaction between Frontex , the key agency in the field of EU border management, and two other relevant EU agencies, namely the EASO and the FRA. The main research questions of this project are twofold: First, are interagency relations shaped by cooperation or conflict? When can we observe interagency cooperation or conflict? Second, how have these interagency relations affected the balance between security concerns and fundamental rights? Theoretically, the project will use the insights of bureaucratic politics and actor-centred constructivism to highlight the role of interest and norms in facilitating or inhibiting the cooperation among EU agencies. Given that EU agencies have a considerable room of manoeuvre, we argue that turf protection as well as mandates and oversight influence are crucial factor in shaping the interaction among EU agencies. With regard to the impact of interagency relations on the balance between security objectives and fundamental rights, we can observe that Frontex has increasingly incorporated fundamental rights principles in its legal framework and activities. However, it is unclear whether this increased sensitivity towards fundamental rights can be regarded as a substantial (i.e. core) change or only minor (i.e. secondary) change of Frontex border management approach. Empirically, the study will answer the research questions by studying the interagency activities of three EU agencies Frontex, EASO and FRA. The project will basically cover the time frame between 2005 and 2016 which corresponds with the lifespan of Frontex and include also the entire activities of FRA and EASO which were set up in 2007 and 2011 respectively. In particular, the project will cover all major issue areas of Frontex, namely intelligence information gathering, analysis and exchange, joint operations, training, return operations Given the ongoing migration and refugee crisis, this first comprehensive and pioneering project will not only provide insights into a crucial area of the EUs executive order but also enhances our knowledge about Frontex and the workings of EASO and FRA both of which received only scant attention by EU scholars so far.

Against the background of the so-called 2015/16 migration and refugee crisis, the EU agency Frontex seeks to reinforce external border control while observing established fundamental rights. In doing so, Frontex is expected to collaborate with other relevant EU agencies such as the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) or the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA). Despite these expectations, not much is known how these agencies cooperate or to what extent Frontex has met its fundamental rights or accountability objectives. The project has shown that the mandates and capacities of Frontex and EASO have significantly increased over the years, especially since the 2015 refugee and migration crisis (e.g. EU hotspot approach). Due to the establishment of the Consultative Forum within Frontex, important dialogues with relevant humanitarian NGOs, international organisations and EU agencies such as EASO and FRA have been institutionalized which, as a result, have modestly increased the accountability of Frontex. At the same time, however, evidence suggests that EU related actors including Frontex have been engaged in the externalisation of migration control, the obstruction of search and rescue operations in the Mediteranean or transparency issue that (still) pose a challenge to established fundamental rights, civil society and the EU's normative identity.