Frontex | Principles

Every country has its own border security needs. While sea borders are the focus of islands like Cyprus or Malta, other countries, such as Austria, have no coastline. Similarly, the systems and structures each country uses vary enormously — some have specialist border guards, while others use police units or other authorities for border control. Hence, each EU Member State has its own training solutions. However, in order for the border authorities of all these countries to work together to the same standards, common ground needs to be established, and this is where Frontex comes in.

Frontex’s role complements training solutions existing at national level to create a training system whereby the border-control personnel of all the Member States can work together effectively. An important principle in this respect is direct cooperation with Member States. The Member States are involved in the development of Frontex training initiatives, curricula and training materials, and temporary sub-project leaders from Member States are deployed under the lead of Frontex. Also, implementation of these initiatives in the Member States is achieved by transfer of common training modules into national ones. Frontex training coordinators thereby play the key role in developing the capacities of individual members. Frontex also trains the trainers. By working at this level, the agency creates ‘multipliers’ who then return to their own national authorities and pass their training on to others.

Working together requires a common understanding of themes ranging from communication to technology, the law and its application, and ultimately of the border-guard mission itself. Therefore, Frontex has created a variety of training resources, from individual specialist training tools to training curricula to bring together best practices and ensure a joint approach as part of the EU’s wider policy of Integrated Border Management (IBM).

Other important EU principles that determine Frontex’s approach to training include the Bologna process, which creates a European Higher Education Area enabling greater comparison between national degree courses, and the Copenhagen process, which promotes vocational training within and beyond the workplace.