Today, 27 March, German Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble on behalf of the EU Presidency and Commissioner Franco Frattini opened the new premises of Frontex in Warsaw.
The Polish Minister of the Interior Janusz Kaczmarek, the Chairman of Frontex Management Board Minze A. Beuving, Members of Frontex Management Board, Ambassadors of EU Member States, representatives of international organizations and other partner bodies are among other important guests hosted by Frontex Executive Director Ilkka Laitinen.
In his welcome speech, Frontex Executive Director outlined shortly the fast beginning of Frontex operational activities. He stressed it was possible thanks to the positive response of the Member States, support of the European Commission and in particular the personal commitment of Vice-President Frattini as well as the support of the Polish Ministry of the Interior. Describing the role of Frontex, Mr Laitinen said that Frontex is an operational coordinator. “Responsibility for the control of the external borders lies with the Member States. Frontex, acting at the EU level, can enhance and complement the national efforts of the Member States.” Further on, the Executive Director specified three preconditions of effective functioning of Frontex. These are the “three pivotal points of one triangle: the finance, the human resources and the commitment and support of Member States to make it all work.” Providing that these three are in place, Frontex can carry out its intelligence driven activities and can proactively respond to the key illegal immigration threats. Summing up his speech, Mr Laitinen expressed his view that Frontex has “come a long way in a short time. We are a modern, dynamic European Agency that has had to become operationally effective in record fast time. We have learned many lessons along the way, and I am sure there will be many more lessons to be learned. But I do believe we have set up effective structures”, he concluded.
The first key note speech was delivered by Polish Minister of the Interior, Mr Janusz Kaczmarek, on behalf of the hosting country. After mentioned the cooperation arrangement between Frontex and Poland, The Minister stress the importance of Frontex as a European coordinator. “The creation of Frontex was a turning point in the approach of the Community to the issue of cooperation between Member States in the field of the EU external borders protection.” Mentioning some concrete operations, Minister Kaczmarek illustrated the opportunities offered by the existence of Frontex: “According to experts’ opinion, joint operations carried out by the Agency, such as FIFA 2006, Turin 2006 or Poseidon confirm that the role of the Agency in coordinating operational cooperation between Member States on the external borders of the EU constitutes a potential we should take advantage of.”
Minister Schäuble stressed the importance of cooperation among the Member States. “The strong migratory pressure along the southern external borders last year clearly demonstrated to all of us that joint coordinated action at EU level is crucial to combat illegal migration effectively,” he said. Minister Schäuble supported the intensification of surveillance of Europe’s external borders and appreciated the work of Frontex: “With its joint operations, the European border management agency Frontex has shown that it can effectively support Member States in coping with this task.” Further on, Minister Schäuble underlined that “Germany is thoroughly committed to strengthening Frontex during its EU Council Presidency”.
Commissioner Frattini opened his speech by paying homage to Frontex and its staff. “In fact, when I refer to an effective and efficient EU agency, I always use the example of Frontex,” he said. Also from the Commission’s point of view the operational capacity of Frontex needed to be boosted. The necessity of the current rapid growth of Frontex has two reasons, being the growing emergencies brought by migration flows but also the “common political commitment for making the best possible use of Frontex available resources”, the Commissioner explained.
At the moment the opening ceremony is being continued with an open debate with the topic “Securing the external borders of an expanding EU: Can Frontex make a difference?”
Photographs from the event can be downloaded in the News room/press kit area of the web page www.frontex.europa.eu after registration.