Frontex | Role

At the core of Frontex’s research and development (R&D) work is exploration of the potential offered by new border management technologies to meet the dual objective of enhancing security while facilitating travel. The agency proactively monitors and contributes to developments in research relevant to the control and surveillance of the external borders. Frontex also keeps Member States and the European Commission up to date with developments.

Effective border control has to strike a balance between facilitating the movement of an increasing number of travellers across borders, and promoting greater security for European citizens. Innovative technologies, which are nowadays developing at an unprecedented pace, can provide valuable help to border management authorities to do their job more efficiently. Yet this important goal requires that border control technologies focus on addressing key challenges. They also need to be sufficiently flexible to adapt to changing circumstances and diverse conditions across national borders, and meet the needs of the border guard community. Moreover, in an EU with no internal border controls and with common external borders, another key challenge lies in fostering interoperability, i.e. the ability of different systems and national authorities to work together.

Frontex plays a key role in bridging the gap between producers and end users, making sure that the research and development community has a clear picture of the needs and challenges faced daily at the EU’s borders. The agency facilitates information exchange between border management authorities, research institutes, universities and industry, via the organisation of projects, workshops and conferences. It also informs EU research programmes under the Security Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme for research and technological development (FP7) and provides input for policy development.

In addition, Frontex is very active in driving the process of harmonisation and development of best practices and standards in border control, both operational and technical, in line with existing and future EU measures.

Border management covers all activities carried out at the external border to address the issue of irregular migration. Yet the nature of the actions related to, and the technologies applied for, border surveillance (between authorised Border Crossing Points, BCPs) and for border checks (at BCPs) are quite different. In order to cater for these different needs, Frontex research and development activities have been organised into two programmes, a border checks programme and a border surveillance programme.

Frontex takes a holistic view of research opportunities, including in social fields. The agency has commissioned studies by recognised experts on the ethics of border security and counter-corruption measures. These studies are intended to provide an accurate picture of Member States’ practices in these fields, and input for policy-makers. Other works includes studies on risk analysis methods, foresight (prediction of future flows at borders) and push and pull factors in migration that influence people’s decision to attempt to enter the EU irregularly.