The Role of EU Agencies in the Management and Guarding of Borders in the EU

The agencification process undertaken through the creation and empowerment of an EU Border and Coast Guard Agency to replace/incorporate Frontex resulted in a deeper integration in the sphere of migration-related border management, leading towards a genuinely concerted European administrative architecture. One of the challenges within the EU border management is the legal demarcation between competences between the EU and the Member States and the coordination amongst the EU institutions and the national authorities. Member States are not able to provide adequate responses to border control and thus transnational solutions are required. To this end, EU agencies are asked to provide responses based on expertise, knowledge and depoliticization. This, however, depends on their mandate, resources, social organization, governance and authority, leading to an intricate interplay between national and European authorities. This research discusses the legal, political, and administrative architecture that overlies the management and guarding of borders in the EU. The monograph addresses the main issues and controversies arising from the complex, and at times fuzzy, institutional setting and governance model that emerged from the recent reforms in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ), focusing in particular on the special role of EU agencies in shaping the European border regime. 

Researcher: Aida Halilovic (see profile)

Supervisors: Ellen Vos, Lilian Tsourdi, Sevasti Chatzopoulou (see profiles)