REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL AND THE COUNCIL on the operationalisation of the European Border and Coast Guard
Date: 2017-01-25
Institutions: Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission
Subjects: EU migration policy, EU office or agency, European cooperation, Schengen Agreement, border control, external border of the EU, illegal migration, operation of the Institutions, paramilitary force, return migration

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 25.1.2017  COM(2017) 42 final   REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL AND THE COUNCIL on the operationalisation of the European Border and Coast Guard   
 
 
1.  EUROPEAN  BORDER  AND  COAST  GUARD  –  PUTTING  IN  PLACE  A 

REINFORCED PROTECTION OF THE EXTERNAL BORDERS  

Protecting  the  external  borders  of  the  European  Union,  including  through  the  European 
Border and Coast Guard, is one of the key pillars of the comprehensive European policy on 
migration  on  which  the  European  Union  is  delivering  in  order  to  address  the  immediate, 
medium as well as long term needs identified in the European Agenda on Migration1. 

The  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  follows  the  concept  and  principles  of  integrated 
border  management  and  brings  together,  in  the  spirit  of  shared  responsibility,  a  robust 
European  border  agency  with  the  border  guard  authorities  of  the  Member  States,  including 
coast  guards  to  the  extent  that  they  carry  out  border  control  tasks.  The  primary  role  and 
competence  of  the  Member  States  in  reinforcing  the  control  at  the  external  border,  on  the 
basis of their own existing capacities of more than 100 000 border and coast guard officers, is 
essential to achieve this objective2.  

Rolling out the activities and tools of the European Border and Coast Guard in early January -  
just  three  months  after  the  entry  into  force  of  the  new  Regulation3  -  promises  additional 
guarantees for reinforcing the management and security of the EU's external borders. 

This  report  takes  stock  of  the  progress  made  in  three  months  in  the  set  priority  areas  and 
identifies  next  steps  to  make  sure  that  we  have  a  fully  operational  and  equipped  European 
Border and Coast Guard in place. This will enable the European Union and its Member States 
to now respond quickly and effectively to migration challenges on the external borders. This 
report is the first in a series of regular reports which will serve to contribute to have the right 
tools and responses in place for a much better protection of the external borders. 

The  protection  of  external  borders  is  the  prerequisite  for  the  normal  functioning  of  the 
Schengen area without internal borders. The joint investment and engagement in ensuring the 
European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  is  fully  operational  as  quickly  as  possible  is  a  practical 
expression  of  the  commitment  of  Member  States  to  share  responsibility  and  demonstrate 
solidarity in the common interest. 

2.  CONTINUED  INCREASED  OPERATIONAL  SUPPORT  TO  FRONT-LINE 

MEMBER STATES 

Building on the capacities and resources of Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard is 
continuing to provide requested support on the ground to frontline Member States in border 
management4. It does so through regular joint operations deployed at different sections of the 
EU  external  borders  (i.e.  Joint  Operations  Triton  in  Central  Mediterranean,  Poseidon  in 

1   COM(2015) 240 final. 
2   This  estimated  figure  is  based  on  data  collected  for  the  2014  feasibility  study  for  creating  the  European 
System of Border Guards. This type of precise data will be further collected and completed by the Agency in 
the framework of the vulnerability assessments in the coming months. 

3   The  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  has  been  established  in  record  time.  On  15  December  2015,  the 
European  Commission  presented  a  legislative  proposal.  On  22  June  2016  political  agreement  was  reached, 
with final adoption of the Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard by the European Parliament 
and the Council on 14 September 2016, just nine months after it was proposed. The Regulation on European 
Border and Coast Guard entered into force on 6 October 2016, and the rapid reaction and return pools became 
respectively operational on 7 December 2016 and 7 January 2017. 

4   The European Border and Coast Guard Agency is also enhancing the cooperation with the European Fisheries 

Control Agency and the European Maritime Safety Agency on coast guard functions. 

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Greece and Flexible Activities and Focal Points in relation to the Western Balkan Route) and 
by supporting return in Member States.  

Based  on  the  pre-existing  pools  of  the  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  teams  and  of 
Technical  Equipment5,  the  Agency  provides  the  biggest  operational  support  in  the  frontline 
Member  States  that  it  has  provided  so  far.  To  reinforce  the  manpower  of  the  responsible 
national border guard, currently more than 1550 members of the European Border and Coast 
Guard Teams are deployed in regular joint operations by the Agency at the external borders of 
the frontline Member States.  By way of example, this means that the numbers deployed to 
Greece join up with the approximately 10 000 Greek border and coast guard officers6.  These 
teams  are  assisted  by  24  boats  and  vessels,  6  aircrafts  and  helicopters,  more  than  80 
patrol cars and 13 thermo-vision vehicles.  

This combined deployment represents the biggest pooling of EU Member States’ resources in 
civil missions which comes on top of the national border guards deployed by the responsible 
Member State: 

  760 officers deployed to Greece, including experts deployed at the Greek-Turkish land 
borders and on the Aegean islands assisting in border control, implementation of the 
hotspot  approach  and  of  the  EU-Turkey  Statement  (in  2016  the  Agency  assisted 
Greece with the readmission of 908 migrants to Turkey); 

  600  officers  deployed  to  Italy  and  the  operations  in  the  Central  Mediterranean 
including  crew  members  of  the  deployed  assets  and  experts  assisting  in  the 
implementation of the hotspot approach;  

  130  officers  deployed  to  Bulgaria  assisting  in  controlling  the  land  borders,  also  in 

view of preventing irregular secondary movements;  

  Around  70  officers  are  currently  deployed  in  other  Member  States  in  order  to  assist 

border management in the Western Balkan region. 

In  addition,  preparation  is  ongoing  with  Greece  in  view  of  deploying  European  Border  and 
Coast Guard Teams at the land border with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and 
Albania  in  order  to  step  up  border  surveillance  and  prevent  irregular  secondary  movements 
and to further reinforce the EU response to the challenges at the Western Balkan route. The 
operation is expected to start at the beginning of February.  

Despite these deployments, the running operations are constantly confronted with gaps, both 
in terms of human resources and technical equipment. These gaps have to be filled in order to 
have a much better protection of external borders. 

Next steps: 

Member States should  

  Ensure that the agreed resources are always made available to the European Border 

and Coast Guard for the running operations and the mandatory pools. 
  Provide the following resources on the basis of the currently identified gaps: 

5   Unlike  the  new  Rapid  Reaction  Pools,  the  pre-existing  pools  were  already  operational  under  the  Agency’s 
previous mandate to carry out joint operations. The contributions to the pools are provided by Member States 
and  the  deployments  are  agreed  in  advance  between  the  Agency  and  the  Member  States.  The  latest 
contributions were set in December 2016 to cover the foreseen operational needs of the Agency in 2017. 

6   The figure is based on the 2014 study on the feasibility of the European system of border guards.  

3 

 
 
 
                                                            
Gaps for Greece (Joint Operation Poseidon) 
-  Until 16 February 2017: 4 officers, 1 helicopter, 2 transportation vehicles 
-  16  February  -  30  March  2017:  10  officers,  1  helicopter,  1  coastal  patrol  boat 

(March only), 4 patrol cars, 2 transportation vehicles 

Gaps  for  Greece  (Joint  Operation  Flexible  Activities  at  the  Northern  Greek  land 
border) 
-  February 2017: 54 officers, 26 patrol cars, 3 dog teams, 1 thermo-vision vehicle, 2 

transportation vehicles  

-  March  2017:  54  officers,  26  patrol  cars,  3  dog teams,  1  thermo-vision  vehicle,  2 

transportation vehicles 

Gaps for Bulgaria (Joint Operations Flexible Activities and Focal Points)  
-  1 February - 1 March  2017:  87 officers, 34 patrol cars, 16 dog teams,  4 thermo-

vision vehicles   

-  1  -  29  March  2017:    69  officers,  33  patrol  cars,  16  dog  teams,  1  thermo-vision 

vehicle   

January 2017: 37 officers, 1 fixed wing aircraft 

Gaps for Italy (Joint Operation Triton) 
- 
-  February 2017: 27 officers, 1 helicopter, 1 coastal patrol vessel 
-  March 2017: 26 officers, 1 offshore patrol vessel, 2 coastal patrol vessels 

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency should 

 

In  order  to  ensure  the  smooth  and  effective  running  of  the  mandatory  pools  inform 
Member  States  on  a  monthly  basis  about  needed  resources  based  on  a  continuous 
monitoring of the situation at the external borders. 

3.  PROGRESS MADE IN THE MAIN PRIORITY AREAS  

Five priority areas for swift operationalisation of the Agency were identified and endorsed by 
Member States at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in April 2016: 

1.  putting  in  place  the  mandatory  pooling  of  resources  to  enhance  the  Agency’s  rapid 

reaction capability; 

2.  carrying out preventive vulnerability assessments based on a common methodology;  
3.  enhancing the support for return activities;  
4.  establishing the complaint mechanism and 
5.  paving  the  way  for  better  operational  cooperation  with  priority  third  countries  by 
setting a model status agreement for deploying the Agency’s operational activities in 
third countries. 

4 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.1.  Reinforcing  the  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  Agency’s  rapid  reaction 

capabilities, including the mandatory pooling of resources 

To enable the EU to react swiftly one of the major achievements of the European Border and 
Coast Guard Regulation was to strengthen considerably the Agency’s rapid reaction capability 
to carry out rapid border interventions7 on top of on-going joint operations. To this end, the 
mandatory  pooling  of  human  and  technical  resources  with  two  dedicated  Rapid  Reaction 
Pools was set up:  

  The Rapid Reaction Pool is intended to be a standing corps of 1500 border guard officers 
and other relevant staff placed at the immediate disposal of the Agency enabling it to carry 
out rapid border interventions. Border guards from this pool shall be deployed from each 
Member  State  within  five  working  days  after  the  operational  plan  is  agreed  by  the 
executive director and the host Member State. The pool is organised around 14 specialised 
profiles  and  it  should  include  amongst  others  467  border  surveillance  officers,  458 
registrations  and  finger  scanning  experts,  97  advanced-level  document  officers  and  137 
nationality screening experts.  

  The Rapid Reaction Equipment Pool will consist of equipment to be deployed within 10 
working  days  after  the  operational  plan  is  agreed  by  the  executive  director  and  the  host 
Member State to cover the initial needs in the framework of rapid border intervention. 

Both Rapid Reaction Pools have been established since 7 December 2016, as required by the 
European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  Regulation.  Whilst  for  the  Rapid  Reaction  Pool,  the 
availability of more than 1 500 border guards and other officers have been confirmed by the 
Member  States,  considerable  gaps  still  exist  for  most  types  of  equipment  to  be  pledged  for 
availability  in  the  Rapid  Reaction  Equipment  Pool,  especially  as  regards  offshore  patrol 
vessels  and  helicopters,  as  compared  with  the  numbers  decided  by  the  Management  Board, 
the Agency's body responsible for taking strategic decisions, and in which each Member State 
is  represented  alongside  the  Commission.  While  certain  needs  could  be  covered  with  the 
Agency's own capabilities, Member States need to urgently pledge to fill the gaps to ensure 
the required availability for all types of equipment. 

Next steps:  

Member States should 

  Urgently  pledge  to  fill  the  gaps  of  the  Rapid  Reaction  Equipment  Pool  to  ensure  its 

full capacity throughout the year by end of February. 

3.2.  Carrying  out  preventive  vulnerability  assessments  based  on  a  common 

methodology 

The  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  Regulation  has  equipped  the  Agency  with  a  new 
effective  mechanism  to  assess  vulnerabilities  in  the  Member  States’  capacities  and,  by 
complementing  the  Schengen  Evaluation  Mechanism,  to  further  reinforce  the  preventive 

7   In  contrast  to  joint  operations  planned  in  advance  in  an  annual  cycle,  a  mechanism  of  rapid  border 
interventions  is  designed  to  respond  to  unexpected  challenges  at  the  external  borders.  In  accordance  with 
Article  20  (5) of  the  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard Regulation,  based  on  a  request of  a  Member  State 
facing such challenges, the Agency’s Executive Director should decide within 2 working days on launching a 
rapid  border  intervention  and,  within  three  working  days  of  this  decision  to  agree  together  with  the  host 
Member State on the operational plan for the deployment. In addition, to enable covering the initial financial 
needs for such a rapid border intervention deployment, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency is also 
obliged every year to put aside a 4% reserve within its operational budget. 

5 

 
 
                                                            
quality control of the functioning of the Schengen area. The vulnerability assessments will 
allow the EU and its Member States to be better prepared to face current and future challenges 
at  the  external  borders.  In  particular,  the  annual  assessment  process  will  ensure  a  collective 
preparedness for a migration crisis by identifying and addressing in advance Member States’ 
weak  points  as  regards  their  equipment,  staffing,  IT  system,  contingency  planning  and 
infrastructure needed for border management, including their capacity to deal with potential 
arrival of large numbers of persons on their territory, so such detected deficiencies would not 
impact on the functioning of the Schengen area. 

The  common  vulnerability assessment  methodology  adopted  at  the  end of  2016  sets  up  one 
single overall assessment process. Through  baseline assessments, the Agency will annually 
evaluate the ability of all Member States to face the current challenges at the external borders 
by  looking  at  the  existing  capacities  (i.e.  equipment,  infrastructure,  staff,  systems, 
contingency  planning)  in  conjunction  with  relevant  threat  indicators  against  a  set  of  the 
objective criteria.  

Building  on  the  baseline  assessments,  the  Agency  will  also  carry  out  simulation  exercises 
annually  to  assess  the  readiness  to  face  upcoming  challenges  by  Member  States  selected 
according  to  the  methodology.  Moreover,  the  Agency  will  set  up  an  emerging  threats 
mechanism allowing for constant screening of the situation at the external borders and which 
could trigger a specific vulnerability assessment.  

In  accordance  with  the  procedure  defined  in  Article  13  of  the  European  Border  and  Coast 
Guard Regulation, when necessary, the assessments carried out by the Agency will result in 
the Agency’s Executive Director, in consultation with the Member State concerned making a 
recommendation  setting  out  the  necessary  measures  for  the  Member  State  to  eliminate 
such identified vulnerabilities within a defined timeframe.  

The  planning  for  2017  was  endorsed  by  the  Management  Board  at  its  meeting  on  23-24 
November  2016.  While  the  Agency’s  workload  for  collecting  and  analysing  the  data  and 
identifying  possible  vulnerabilities  is  challenging,  it  is  essential  to  keep  the  high  level  of 
ambition  for  the  implementation  of  the  assessment  process  in  2017  in  line  with  the  agreed 
common  methodology.  It  is  expected  to  carry  out  baseline  assessments  on  the  current 
challenges,  and  when  appropriate,  simulation  exercises  also  evaluating  in  all  pertinent 
Member States as for their capacities to face the future challenges. The full commitment and 
participation of Member States, especially for data collection, will be essential.  

In order to support the Agency in delivering on this important task and to ensure the smooth 
exchanges and cooperation with the Member States, the Vulnerability Assessment Network 
composed of experts from Member States, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency and 
the  Commission  was  established.  Its  first  meeting  took  place  on  12-13  December  2016  in 
Warsaw.  

On  18  January  2017,  in  order  to  start  the  baseline  assessments,  the  Agency  has  started  the 
collection  of  data  on  the  Member  States’  all  existing  capacities  necessary  for  border 
management  requiring  around  90  000  data  positions  to  be  provided  by  Member  States  and 
analysed  by  the  Agency.  This  collected  data  will  serve  as  a  basis  and  key  reference  for 
performing  vulnerability assessments in 2017 and onwards. In order to support the Member 
States’ efforts to collect and provide timely the data, the Agency will deploy on a temporary 
basis  several  staff  members  to  selected  Member  States  to  support  them  in  this  challenging 
exercise.  

6 

 
 
In  the  context  of  the  Vulnerability  Assessments  process,  early  results  of  this  work  need  to 
feed  into  fixing  as  a  matter  of  priority  the  most  urgent  vulnerabilities  being  identified.  This 
means being able to respond in  the coming  months  to  the vulnerabilities linked to the main 
migration challenges currently being faced. 

Next steps:  

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency should  

  Ensure a priority process for identifying the most urgent vulnerabilities based on the 

first results of the vulnerability assessment process and other information. 

  Carry out baseline assessments on the current challenges for all the Member States by 

April 2017. 

  Carry  out  simulation  exercises  on  the  future  challenges  in  relation  to  all  Member 

States, for which the methodology will require so, between April-October 2017. 
  Set up and apply a mechanism for emerging threat assessment as of April 2017. 

Member States should  

  Set up a Vulnerability Assessment capacity at national level and put in place a system 

for collection of data from all relevant authorities by end of January 2017. 

  Provide the Agency with all the necessary data on the existing capacities in line with 

 

the Agency’s request by 17 February 2017. 
If  applicable,  contribute  actively  and  fully  cooperate  with  the  Agency  in  conducting 
simulation exercises to assess their respective capacities to face future challenges at 
be carried out in all Member States between April- October 2017. 

3.3.  Support for return 

The European Border and Coast Guard Regulation made return of irregular migrants a priority 
area of work for the Agency, enabling it to scale up considerably the support it provides to the 
Member States - which are primarily responsible for the return of irregular migrants. This is 
part of the Commission's ambitious efforts to create a legislative and operational framework 
that makes the EU's return system more effective and to improve cooperation on readmission 
with third countries. 

The  Regulation  significantly  widens  the  mandate  of  the  Agency  enabling  it  to  provide 
across the board assistance on return, covering both voluntary departure and forced return, by 
organising  return  operations,  providing  assistance  on  consular  cooperation  with  third 
countries in view of the identification of irregular migrants. Since 7 January 2017, three new 
pools of forced-return monitors, forced-return escorts and return specialists are available for 
operations. They can now be mobilised forming European Return Intervention Teams. Upon 
request  from  Member  States,  these  teams  can  provide  operational  support  to  increase  the 
capacities  of  Member  States  to  return.  22  Member  States8  have  contributed  to  these  pools, 
providing 395 of the 690 experts that are needed. Member States need to fill this gap and 
ensure that all profiles are adequately represented in the pools. 

The  Agency  has  rapidly  scaled  up  its  activities  on  return  –  in  2016,  it  organised  a  record 
number of 232 operations, returning 10 700 irregular migrants - a four-fold increase compared 
to 2015 when 3565 migrants were returned in 66 operations; since the entry into force of the 
Regulation  until  12  January,  the  Agency  organised  78  return  operations  –  more  than  in  the 

8   Situation on 12 January 2017. 

7 

 
 
                                                            
whole year 2015 – to return 3421 irregular migrants. The Agency should further expand its 
assistance by providing support with returns through commercial flights and developing intra-
EU hubs dedicated to return operations. 

The  Agency  has  also  strengthened  its  assistance  to  Member  States  on  so-called  'pre-return' 
activities. In this context, it organised identification missions from Mali, Gambia and Nigeria 
to  several  Member  States  with  the  purpose  of  confirming  the  identity  of  irregular  migrants. 
The Agency is also assisting Greece by promoting consular cooperation to ensure return, and 
providing risk analysis prior to return operations. 

The significant increases in the resources made available to the Agency have enabled this up-
scaling of its work on return. In both 2016 and 2017, EUR 66.5 million have been allocated to 
its  return  activities,  up  from  EUR  9.5  million  in  2015;  52  staff  will  be  working  on  return-
related activities in 2017, and this number is expected to reach 117 by 2020.   

One of the key measures announced by the Commission was the setting up of an Integrated 
Return Management System, to help build operational synergies between the work on return 
and readmission of the Member States, European Border and Coast Guard, Commission and 
the  EU-funded  programmes  ERIN  (European  Reintegration  Network),  EURINT  (European 
Integrated  Approach  on  Return  towards  Third  Countries)  and  EURLO  (European  Return 
Liaison  Officers).  The  Integrated  Return  Management  System's  aim  is  to  facilitate  the 
provision  of  operational  support  to  Member  States  (for  instance  with  the  organisation  of 
identification missions) and exchange of best practices.  

As a first step, in order to facilitate the planning of return operations and to assist the Member 
States  and  the  Agency  in  the  gathering  and  sharing  of  operational  information,  the 
Commission  has  developed  a  secure  platform,  the  Integrated  Return  Management 
Application (IRMA). Under the European Return Liaison Officers network programme, nine 
European  Return  Officers  were  deployed  to  countries  relevant  for  readmission,  for  instance 
Afghanistan or Ethiopia, to provide support to all Member States on readmission issues, while 
new deployments are being planned. The Agency, in agreement with the EU programmes and 
the  Commission,  has  also  embarked  on  a  gradual  process  of  transferring  the  operational 
support activities currently carried out by the programmes to the Agency, such as support to 
Member States with organising identification missions or exchange of best practices through 
dedicated working groups on third-countries.  

The  Agency's  efforts  to  step  up  its  support  to  return  operations  will  benefit  and  should  be 
reinforced by the wider discussion and work to improve returns and readmissions within the 
European Union. In light of the new needs, the Commission will update the EU Action Plan 
on  Return  in  the  coming  weeks  to  ensure  swiftly  an  effective  response.  In  particular,  the 
Commission  will  identify  on  the  basis  of  the  current  EU  rules  how  better  enforcement  of 
return  decisions  can  be  achieved,  using  the  flexibility  contained  in  those  rules,  and  provide 
clear guidance in this respect. 

Next steps: 

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency should 

  Ensure that the return-related pools are fully equipped and operational.  
  Make fullest use of its new mandate, by developing new ways of supporting return, in 

particular through commercial flights. 

8 

 
 
The Member States should 

  Urgently fill the gaps of the Return Pools. 
  Collect real time, accurate information on returns. 
  Provide the Agency all information that is necessary to exercise its mandate. 

The Commission will 

  Bring forward a revised Action Plan on Return in the coming weeks. 

3.4  Setting  up  of  the  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  Agency’s  complaint 

mechanism 

On 6 October 2016, the Agency’s Executive Director, in consultation with the Fundamental 
Rights  Officer,  set  up  a  complaints  mechanism  to  monitor  and  ensure  the  respect  for 
fundamental  rights  in  the  activities  carried  out  by  the  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard 
Agency. A complaint form has been made available on the Agency’s website in six languages 
(English, French, Arabic, Pashtu, Urdu, Tigrinya), nonetheless complaints may be submitted 
in any EU official languages. By mid-January 2017, only one complaint was submitted to the 
Agency.  

Furthermore, the Agency intends to establish a network of authorities in Member States that 
have  the  mandate  to  handle  the  complaints  against  Member  States’  staff  transmitted  by  the 
Agency’s  Fundamental  Rights  Officer.  This  network  will  also  include  the  national  bodies 
competent  for  fundamental  rights.  A  first  contact  meeting  between  the  Fundamental  Rights 
Officer and those contact points was organised in Brussels in December 2016. 

In  order  to  support  the  implementation  of  the  complaint  mechanism  and  to  generally 
mainstream fundamental rights in respect of all the activities of the Agency, the EU funding 
for  the  Agency  was  specifically  increased  by  EUR  500  000  per  year.  In  addition,  the 
Fundamental Rights Officer will receive additional staff in 2017 to support her tasks.  

Next steps:  

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency should 

  Prioritise and launch the recruitment procedure for the staff necessary to support the 

Fundamental Rights Officer by end of March 2017. 

3.5.  Paving the way for better operational cooperation with priority third countries by 

setting a model status agreement 

The European Border and Coast Guard Regulation also enhanced the Agency’s role as regards 
cooperation  with  third  countries.  The  Agency  has  previously  established  bilateral  working 
arrangements  in  the  field  of  border  management  and  return  with  18  priority  third  countries, 
for  example  with  all  Western  Balkans  countries  and  with  Turkey.  Since  April  2016,  the 
Agency has also deployed a liaison officer to Turkey.  

The Agency is currently revising all the existing working arrangements  in line with the new 
mandate.  Additional  budget  and  posts  were  provided  to  enable  the  Agency  to  deploy  in  the 
coming years up to additional 10 liaison officers in priority countries, starting with Niger and 
Serbia with the latter foreseen to cover the whole Western Balkan region.  

9 

 
 
In the past, however the Agency was not legally entitled to deploy its teams in the territory of 
third countries. This limitation proved particularly problematic during the 2015 with regards 
to addressing the migratory flows on the Western Balkan Route during the 2015. For the first 
time, the European Border and Coast Guard Regulation now provides for the possibility for 
the Agency to carry out actions with executive powers on the territory of neighbouring third 
countries subject to a prior agreement concluded by the European Union and the third country 
concerned.  

The Commission adopted on 22 November 2016 a model status agreement which serves as a 
blueprint for such agreements. The Commission selected two priority third countries, Serbia 
and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and is currently conducting exploratory talks 
in  view  of  pursuing  such  agreements.  On  25  January  2017,  the  Commission  adopted 
recommendations to the Council to authorise the opening of negotiations with Serbia and the 
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. 

Next steps: 

The Council should 

  authorise  swiftly    the  opening  of  negotiations  with  Serbia  and  the  former  Yugoslav 

Republic of Macedonia on the respective status agreements  

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency should 

 

finalise  the  recruitment  and  subsequently  the  deployment  of  the  liaison  officers  to 
Niger and to Serbia, respectively by April and June 2017 

3.6.  Headquarters agreement 

For more than eleven years, the Agency has been operating without a headquarters agreement 
with the host Member State. In accordance with Article 57 of the European Border and Coast 
Guard Regulation, such agreement should be concluded no later than 7 April 2017. Following 
the  entry  into  force  of  the  European  Border  and  Coast  Guard  Regulation,  the  Agency  and 
Poland  have  revived  the  discussions  in  view  of  achieving  this  objective.  The  technical 
negotiations have been finalised on 23 January 2017. 

Next step:  

Poland and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency should 

 

Conclude  the  headquarters  agreement  according  to  the  respective  procedures  by  7 
April 2017. 

3.7.  Increasing budget and staff 

The EU funding for the Agency will gradually increase from 250 million euro in 2016 to 320 
million  euro  in  2020  and  the  Agency’s  staff  will  grow  from  400  in  2016  to  1000  staff 
members in 2020.  

Initially, nearly 240 additional posts of different types (Temporary Agents, contractual agents, 
seconded national experts) were foreseen for 2017 as a first step to reach the ultimate number 
of 1000 Agency's staff members by year 2020. However in view of equipping the Agency as 
quickly  as  possible  with  the  necessary  staff,  the  budgetary  authority  agreed  on  1  December 
2016  to  amend  the  Agency’s  2016  Establishment  Plan  enabling  it  to  already  recruit  50 

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temporary agents in 2016 out of the 130 foreseen for 2017. In the meantime, the Agency has 
proactively  launched  the  relevant  recruitment  processes  related  to  the  50  frontloaded  posts. 
However, more efforts are needed to urgently absorb the allocated resources.  

Next steps:  

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency should  

 

launch  recruitment  procedures  for  all  the  posts  foreseen  under  the  agreed  2017 
establishment plan by end of March 2017, in particular to address staffing needs for 
the priority areas 

  ensure the effective absorption of additional financial resources in line the priorities 

endorsed by the budgetary authority  

4.  CONCLUSIONS 

The first three months of rolling out the activities and tools of the European Border and Coast 
Guard  Regulation  have  shown  that  all  stakeholders  are  working  to  ensure  a  reinforced 
capability  to  protect  the  external  borders.  In  particular,  first  steps  have  been  completed 
through the setting up of the new mandatory pools.  

The  process  for  the  preventive  mechanism  for  detecting  and  addressing  Member  States’ 
vulnerabilities, which forms an essential part of this new approach for a much better border 
protection, has now been started. Early results of this work need to feed into fixing as a matter 
of priority the most urgent vulnerabilities being identified. This means being able to respond 
in the coming months to the vulnerabilities linked to the main migration challenges currently 
being faced.  

Delivering  on  returning  irregular  migrants  –  also  as  a  means  to  deter  and  reduce  further 
irregular  migration  –  is  another  priority  where  the  Agency  must  considerably  enhance  its 
support  alongside  stepped-up  efforts  by  the  Member  States.  Building  on  the  good  results 
already achieved, it should develop new tools to provide enhanced support on return. For its 
part,  the  Commission,  will  in  the  coming  weeks  bring  forward  a  revised  Action  Plan  on 
Return. 

The Commission will report again on the progress made to reinforce the external borders on 1 
March 2017. 

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