The European Border and Coast Guard Agency has been officially launched today at the Kapitan Andreevo Border Checkpoint at the Bulgarian external border with Turkey, less than a year after it was first proposed by the European Commission.
Building on the foundations of Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency will closely monitor the EU’s external borders and work together with Member States to quickly identify and address any potential security threats to the EU’s external borders.
“Today is a milestone in the history of European border management. From now onwards, the external EU border of one Member State is the external border of all Member States – both legally and operationally,” Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said.
The European Border and Coast Guard will ensure a collective European management of the borders, based on the principle that security of the common EU external borders is a responsibility shared amongst all EU countries.
The new agency will support, monitor and, when necessary, reinforce the national border guards, focusing primarily on early detection and prevention of weaknesses in the management of the external borders.
“By launching the European Border and Coast Guard, we are creating a new reality at our external borders,” Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, holder of the rotating Presidency of the Council, said.
The establishment of a European Border and Coast Guard is part of the measures under the European Agenda on Migration to reinforce the management and security of the EU’s external borders.