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Today, Frontex joins in the celebration of Europe Day, the 67th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, which outlined the European cooperation to promote peace and unity between EU member states.

Following the end of World War II, the Schuman Declaration began rebuilding Europe as a community, as well as a free trade and a free movement area for its citizens.

The Declaration set the path for the creation of the Schengen Area in 1995, the largest free travel area in the world, allowing European citizens to cross the national borders of European member states unhindered. This decision lead to the creation of a common external EU border and required cooperation between national border authorities to protect the common free movement area.

Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, was the response to this need. The agency has been set up to assist member states in managing their external borders and tackling common security threats such as cross-border crime and terrorism.

Frontex currently deploys 27 vessels, 5 helicopters and 5 aircraft as well as more than 1 300 border and coast guard officers at EU’s external borders. They assist the national authorities in border surveillance, search and rescue, and the identification and registration of migrants. The officers taking part in Frontex operations also collect information about various types of cross-border crime, including drug trafficking, people smuggling, human trafficking and terrorism. This intelligence is shared with national police authorities, with Europol and soon also with Eurojust.

All these actions are performed with full respect of international and European law.

“Frontex has been coordinating the operational assistance to EU member states for more than a decade,” said Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri. “Last year, our mandate has been strengthened by EU policymakers to be able to address new challenges at EU’s external borders more effectively. Protecting the area of free-movement is our everyday commitment,” he added.

In addition to rescuing 90 000 lives in Italy and Greece last year, boats and aircraft deployed by Frontex in the Mediterranean Sea contributed to the arrest of 1000 suspected people smugglers and helped seize 96 tonnes of narcotics.