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Justice & Home Affairs
EU External Border Control
Integrated Border Management
VIS
Schengen  Border Code

●2002: exchanges on definition of ‘integrated border management’
●Council: ‘EU Schengen Catalogue’ (February 2002)
●focus on intra-state cooperation
●Commission: Communication ‘Towards integrated management’ (May 2002)
●focus on common EU instrument, “in the run-up to a European Corps of Border Guards” (Communication
p. 12)
●

●Frontex established in 2004 by Council Regulation 2007/2004 (not – yet – EP)
●its main tasks:
●coordination of joint operations by member states,
●training of border guards,
●risk analysis,
●technical and operational assistance to member states, and support for member states in joint
return operations
•

●Further clarification of ‘IBM’ terminology in Council Conclusions (December 2006).
●


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Council's idea of ‘integrated border management’
•border control, including risk analysis and crime intelligence;
•detecting and investigating “cross-border crime”
•the four-tier/filter access control model;
•inter-agency cooperation including border guards, customs and police, national security and
military services; and
•coordination between  national and transnational level
Conclusion JHA Council 2006

‘four-tiers’ approach: four-filter access
(mainly consular) activities in third countries
international border cooperation (with third countries)
activities inside the territory (limited “internal border checks”)
checks and surveillance at external borders

●Further clarification of ‘IBM’ terminology in Council Conclusions (December 2006).
●It was the go-ahead for:
●a common corpus of legislation;
●more operational capacity at EU level (i.e. Frontex)
●
●

●Schengen Borders Code (Regulation 526/2006)
●rules on temporary re-introduction internal border checks
●entry conditions (valid visa, short-stay, long-stay, etc.)
● border checks on EU citizens
●‘minimum checks' as a rule
●border checks on third-country nationals
●'thorough checks' as a rule
●conditions for relaxation of border controls (in case of intense traffic and excessive delays)
●very topical (because of Ukraine): the humanitarian exception clause
●rules on border surveillance
●operational coordination and cooperation
●
●

●RABIT Regulation (863/2007) was first amendment of the 2004 Frontex Regulation
●it foresees in the creation of Rapid Border Intervention Teams from a pool of national border
guard services
●in particular for surveillance of border lines between formal crossing points
●they are emergency border teams which can be called in by member states
●the first time a RABIT was invited by a state to assist was at the Greek Turkish borders in 2010

●Visa Information System (VIS)
●VIS is established by Regulation 767/2008
●it is a large-scale IT system (containing biometric data) allowing Schengen States to exchange
visa data, thereby facilitating checks and the issuance of visas
●

●Lisbon Changes
●concept of 'integrated management’ system enshrined in TFEU
●art. 77(2)d: the EU can adopt “any measure necessary for the gradual establishment of an
integrated management system for external borders”
●which proved to be the basis for upgrading Frontex
●

•EBCG (2016)
●Regulation 2016/1624: upgrading of Frontex to European Border and Coast Guard (EBCG)
●stronger coordinating power “placing it ‘functionally’ above the MS administration.” (Ferrara & de
Capitani 2016: 393)
●
●
●

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‘EBCG’ Regulation 2016/1624
•It transformed Frontex “from an element of horizontal network to the core of hierarchically
integrated structure.”
(Ferrara & de Capitani 2016: 392)
•the 2015 refugee crisis was the catalyst for establishing EBCG
•In case of “disproportionate” migratory pressure the Agency may, either at the request of EU
country or on its own initiative, organise and coordinate rapid border interventions and deploy its
own teams
•EBCG staff would be more than doubled
•ability to purchase own equipment and deploy it as it sees fit

•EBCG (2016)
●Regulation 2016/1624: upgrading of Frontex to European Border and Coast Guard (EBCG)
●stronger coordinating power “placing it ‘functionally’ above the MS administration.” (Ferrara & de
Capitani 2016: 393)
●Which also included availability of monitoring tools:
● “common integrated risk analysis model” (being less dependent on national analyses)
●vulnerability assessments (i.e. monitoring& assessing capacity and readiness of Member States
●
●
●

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"Smart Borders" Package
Objective:
address the problem of bottlenecks at cross-border points (by introducing categories of ‘trusted
traveller' , facilitating pre-screening procedures at consular posts, the use of automated border
gates, etc.)
One of the initiatives: Entry-Exit Regulation (2017)

•IBMF & revison SBC
●Integrated Border Management Fund (IBMF) a financial instrument for supporting border management
●is allocated € 6,5 billion (for 2021-2027 period)
●EU Summit February 2023:
●with the MS in want of even more EU money for financing external border policing
●revision of the Dublin ‘first entry rule’ (into redistribution system based on quotas) has chance
to materialize
●
●
●

Even in the EBCG instrument, ‘integrated management’ concept still misses clarity and overarching
strategy
(Ferrara & de Capitani 2016: 387)
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Border management should be targeted at checking whether persons meet the entry requirements
established by law
•Weak implementation of ‘integrated’ management
•
•Focus on security
Implementation mainly deals with security perspective and intelligence-led policing
(Ferrara & de Capitani 2016: 396; see also: Hess & Kasparek 2017: 49-50)
Therefore, no capacity to calculate and share costs “fairly” between all member states (Ferrara &
de Capitani 2016)
Critical Issues
weak implemen-tation of ‘integrated’ management
There is no financial overview
Still not clear how responsibility should be shared
A compensatory mechanism under construction (IBMF)
Focus on security
Yet, MS objective is preventing migrants from reaching the EU’s territory by irregular means
However,  the ‘Smart border package’ indicates  also facilitation of legal migration  through
development of traveller-friendly services

Leading statement for in-class debate of tomorrow:
Europol should acquire more operational powers.


Leading statement for in-class debate of today:
Member states should be allowed to (continue to) externalize reception and registration in
neighbouring (third-state) countries

Afbeelding met kaart Automatisch gegenereerde beschrijving
The 2022 shift in discourse: ‘fences around Europe’


The 2022 shift in discourse: ‘fences around Europe’
Afbeelding met grafiek Automatisch gegenereerde beschrijving


Extra info on ‘hotspots’
•‘Hotspot’
•‘Relocation’
•‘Pushback’
•externalization by member states of reception and registration in neighbouring (third-state)
countries.
•
•

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Refugee crisis 2015

Creation of ‘Hotspots’
the five hotspots
Source: European Agency for European Rights, ‘Map of hotspots in Greece (5) and Italy (5) as of
February 2018’

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2015 Relocation Plan

Before 2014, rescues took place closer to Italy, with migrant boats traveling as far as Italian
water. By 2014, many rescues were occurring farther sought in the Mediterranean.
Source: Stuart A. Thompson and Anjali Singhvi, ‘Efforts to Rescue Migrants Caused Deadly,
Unexpected Consequences’, The New York Times, June 14, 2017

By 2015, rescues reached even closer to the Lybian side of the Mediterranean Sea
Source: Stuart A. Thompson and Anjali Singhvi, ‘Efforts to Rescue Migrants Caused Deadly,
Unexpected Consequences’, The New York Times, June 14, 2017

More recently, rescues reached were taking place closer to Lybian territorial waters.
Source: Stuart A. Thompson and Anjali Singhvi, ‘Efforts to Rescue Migrants Caused Deadly,
Unexpected Consequences’, The New York Times, June 14, 2017

END
Santino Lo Bianco PhD
Email: santinolobianco@outlook.com