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A new class of 203 officers has completed training and joined the ranks of the Frontex Standing Corps, the European Union’s first uniformed service, at a graduation ceremony at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Their training with Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, combined practical border guard skills with EU and international law, including fundamental rights. The graduates will now deploy to Frontex operations at the EU’s land, sea and air borders and in non-EU partner countries, working alongside national border guards and police.

The graduates’ families were among the several hundred guests at the ceremony in the Castle’s Kubicki Arcades on 21 October. Frontex Executive Director Hans Leijtens addressed the class, as did Maciej Duszczyk, Undersecretary of State at Poland’s Ministry of the Interior and Administration, and Contingent Commander Lien Onghena, who spoke on behalf of the graduates.

The Executive Management presented the Medal of Honour in Service to nine officers for acts of courage on and off duty. Among them were an officer who pulled people from burning vehicles after a road accident and kept a seriously injured driver stable until emergency services arrived, and another who gave life-saving first aid to an infant during border checks.

The ceremony also included a tribute to border guards, police officers and coast guards from EU Member States who have lost their lives in the line of duty, with a wreath laid in their memory.

Launched in 2021, the Standing Corps brings together Frontex’s own officers and officers seconded by Member States’ border guard and police authorities for long-term and short-term deployments. Under the European Border and Coast Guard Regulation, it is to reach 10 000 officers by 2027. At any one time, around 3 800 Standing Corps officers are deployed to Frontex operations, supporting national authorities with border checks and surveillance, returns, and the fight against cross-border crime.