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Frontex
Motto: Libertas Securitas Justitia "Freedom Security Justice"
Agency of the European Union
Location:	Warsaw, Poland
Formation - Signed - Established	October 26, 2004 May 1, 2005
Pillar:	European Communities
Director:	Ilkka Laitinen
Website:	frontex.europa.eu

Frontex (from French: Frontières extérieures, legally: European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union), headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, is the external border security agency of the European Union. It is responsible for co-ordinating the activities of the national border guards in ensuring the security of the EU's borders with non-member states.

Frontex was established by Council Regulation (EC) 2007/2004. The agency started to be operational on October 3, 2005 and was the first EU agency to be based in one of the members who joined in 2004.

Frontex' mission is to help EU Member States implement EU rules on external border controls and to coordinate operational cooperation between Member States in the field of external border management. It is, of course, up to each member state to control its own borders, but the Agency will help ensure that they all do so with the same high standard of efficiency.

The main tasks of the agency include:

• coordination of operational cooperation between Member States in the field of management of external borders;
• assistance to Member States in the training of national border guards
• carrying out risk analysis;
• following up the development of research relevant for the control and surveillance of external borders;
• assistance to Member States in circumstances requiring increased technical and operational assistance at external borders;
• providing Member States with the necessary support in organising joint return operations.

The Agency is managed by its Executive Director, Ilkka Laitinen. The agency initially struggled to recruit staff ^[1] due to its location in Warsaw, which offered lower pay than some other cities, and the unclear agency mandate.

Special European forces of rapidly deployable border guards were created by EU interior ministers in April 2007 to assist in border control, particularly on Europe's southern coastlines.^[2] Frontex's European Patrols Network began work in the Canary Islands in May 2007.^[3]

• Schengen Agreement
  • Schengen Information System
  • Eurodac
• European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom & Security
• Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
• Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters
• Geography of the European Union
• Countries bordering the European Union

• Frontex: official website
• Founding act of Frontex

1. ^ Staff woes hit EU border agency BBC News
2. ^ EU agrees rapid reaction anti-immigration units euobserver.com
3. ^ EU border agency starts sea patrols euobserver.com

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