Frontex | EUROSUR

In the amendment to Frontex Regulation (EU) 1168/2011 the European Parliament and the Council tasked Frontex “to provide the necessary assistance to the development and operation of a European border surveillance system, and (…) to the development of a common information sharing environment, including interoperability of systems.”

EUROSUR is thought as a pan-European border surveillance system having three main objectives: - to reduce the number of irregular migrants entering the EU undetected, - to reduce the number of deaths of irregular migrants by saving more lives at sea, and - to increase the internal security of the EU as a whole by contributing to the prevention of cross-border crime.

EUROSUR could form a “system of systems” giving all the Member States’ border-control authorities access to a secure and decentralised information-sharing network resulting in a full picture of events at the EU external borders.

In its Communication (COM (2008) 68) the Commission outlines a three-phase common technical framework for setting up a "European border surveillance system" (EUROSUR) designed to support the Member States in their efforts to reduce the number of irregular migrants entering the European Union by improving their situational awareness at their external borders and increasing the reaction capability of their information and border control authorities.

(i.) Phase one involves connecting and rationalising existing surveillance systems at national level. For this to work, each Member State is required to create a National Coordination Centre (NCC) that collates information from its various border-control and law-enforcement bodies to create a coherent national picture.

NCCs, which form the system’s ‘backbone,’ need to be interconnected via a mechanism that enables them to share information while also retaining control over what data is shared with whom and when.

The first tangible result of this venture is the EUROSUR Network, which acts as a testing ground for the system between selected Member States and Frontex. During its developmental phases, EUROSUR will be limited to surveillance of the southern maritime border and the eastern land border.

(ii.) The second phase is to improve surveillance at the EU level by introducing more advanced technologies and combining all the resultant data to form a coherent whole, available to its users 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

As the system is further refined, it is intended to create a series of “situational pictures” for the Member States. The first level will be a National Situational Picture consisting of information collected from local situational pictures and from different national authorities and managed by the NCCs.

Next will be a European Situational Picture to include information selected from the national situational pictures and managed presumably by Frontex. The final level will be a Common Pre-Frontier Intelligence Picture, also presumably managed by Frontex, which will contain information and intelligence on the pre-frontier area, which is relevant for the prevention of irregular migration and cross-border crime.

(iii.) The third phase focuses on creating a common information-sharing environment for all national and EU authorities involved in the maritime domain, including elements as diverse as environmental protection, fisheries control and maritime safety as part of the EU’s Integrated Maritime Policy.

As the Commission states in its communication, the first two phases should be limited to external land and sea borders, while third phase should focus exclusively on the maritime domain. The aspects dealing with surveillance of external maritime borders form part of the overall framework set by the Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union.

Once implemented, EUROSUR would constitute a decisive step in the gradual establishment of a common European integrated border management system. When implementing the different measures described by the Commission, the External Borders Fund should be the main solidarity mechanism for the Member States in sharing the financial burden in the European Union.