Piraeus will host Frontex Operational Office further to a decision taken yesterday by Frontex Management Board. This will be the first of offices that are supposed to provide regionally-based support for Frontex coordinated activities. The Management Board decided to choose the Eastern Mediterranean region for a pilot project. If the pilot project proves to be successful the concept will be implemented also in other regions such as: the Western Mediterranean, the Western Balkan and the Black Sea, and the Eastern land borders including the Baltic Sea.
The establishment of Frontex Operational Offices (FOO) is a result of the debate on the improvement of Frontex operational capacity. New offices will strengthen Frontex role as a coordinator in the joint operations, enhance situational awareness in the region and reinforce its contribution to increase and harmonise border management standards across the external borders of the EU, according to Ilkka Laitinen, Frontex Executive Director.
The core responsibilities will remain in Frontex Headquarters while the FOO will cater specific operational and practical needs of Member States, with the aim to increase the effectiveness of joint operations and efficient use of funds.
Laitinen underlines that decision taken by the Management Board supports the possible enhancement of Frontex mandate highlighted already in the Stockholm Programme. “The increased regional presence will serve to match increasing reporting obligations on joint operations and enhance inter-agency co-operation with agencies such as Europol or European Asylum Support Office” he says.
“I can even say this decision anticipates potential enlargement of the EU and Schengen zone. It gives Frontex a possibility to offer more support for the operational involvement of third countries, something that is essential for effective border management.”
The final decision on the shape and functions of FOO was based on the combination of different operational components outlined in a feasibility study commissioned last year by the Management Board. Voting on further expansion of the Frontex Operational Offices concept will take place in 2012, after the evaluation of the pilot project.