Frontex held an inauguration ceremony in Piraeus, Greece, on October 1 for the opening of its pilot Frontex Operational Office (FOO). The FOO represents the Agency’s first premises outside its Warsaw HQ and is a pilot programme to test the effectiveness of strengthening Frontex’s regional presence to enhance coverage of the concrete operational and practical needs of Member States in the operational area of the EU’s southern borders.
In the presence of a host of international dignitaries from the region including Mr Christos Papoutsis, Minister of Citizen Protection of Greece, as well as Frontex Management Board Members from the Member States of the FOO operational area — Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta — and FOO staff, the ceremony featured a speech by Directorate C Migration and Borders Jean Louis de Brouwer and a briefing by Frontex Executive Director Illka Laitinen, prior to a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Director De Brouwer said: “Greece is the Member State confronted with the biggest challenge. This is not a Greek problem, it is an EU issue,” going on to emphasise that solidarity, as a fundamental principle of the EU, was embodied by Frontex. “This operational office is the first of its kind,” he said. “It cannot fail. It simply cannot fail. […] FOO is an absolutely essential element of Frontex’s development. Failure of this centre is not an option.”
After briefing guests on the current situational picture at the EU’s external borders, Frontex Executive Director Ilkka Laitinen thanked the Greek authorities for their support in establishing the FOO and praised their commitment to the principles of EU solidarity in the new era of Security, Freedom and Justice embodied by the Lisbon Treaty. Highlighting Frontex’s role in the post-Lisbon environment, Illka Laitinen said: “Fighting crime at the border is a key objective of the Lisbon Treaty, one of the cornerstones of which is full respect for fundamental rights. There is no need to compromise between these two goals — they are complementary and can be achieved in tandem.”
Laitinen also emphasised the need to develop a more rapid response capacity to unforeseeable events. “The pilot FOO will complement HQ’s unity with a regional approach,” he said. “We need a regional touch.”
Set up in August 2010 at the HQ of the Hellenic Coast Guard, the FOO is now fully operational and will be assessed after nine months of operation. If successful, the pilot FOO will open the way for a further three such regional centres at key points at the EU’s external border.