More staff and powers: EU wants to massively expand Frontex

EU plans for Frontex More staff and more powers As of: October 27, 2026 • 4:55 p.m

The EU Commission wants to massively expand Frontex. In the future, the border protection agency should pay more attention to deportations - including between third countries. A rapid reaction force for crises like the one in Ceuta is also planned.

According to a proposal from the EU Commission, the European border protection agency Frontex should play a larger role in deportations in the future. It should have around three times as many staff available to it.

The permanent reserve, which is largely made up of available civil servants from the member countries, is expected to grow to a total of 30,000 in the coming years, according to a statement. Previously, 10,000 staff were planned for next year.

“Frontex must be faster, must be more agile and must be better prepared,” argued EU Interior Commissioner Magnus Brunner. For the reform, the Commission is calling for the budget for Frontex to be doubled from the current six billion euros to around twelve billion euros for the next multi-year EU budget.

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Frontex should also have its own coordination center for deportations. Frontex will “cover the entire spectrum of the return process, from early identification and advice on voluntary return to the implementation of return measures and the provision of reintegration assistance,” says the paper that has now been presented.

In addition, online monitoring should observe publicly accessible social media content that indicates possible migration efforts - as a lesson from the crisis in Ceuta with at least 140 deaths.

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Frontex is the European Border and Coast Guard Agency based in Warsaw. The main task and goal so far has been to support the member states in border protection - for example with passport controls or border surveillance with patrols.

The authority is also already providing support during deportations. Frontex is not allowed to act on its own initiative. Responsibility and control over the EU's external borders lies with the member states. As a rule, the agency is only used upon request or after approval by the EU country concerned. There she works with local staff such as the police or coast guard - in Germany, for example, Frontex provides specially trained staff for deportation flights.

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The EU Commission is now also proposing to allow Frontex to carry out deportations between third countries. In other words, to be able to deport people who are already outside the European Union to another non-EU country. The prerequisite would be a corresponding agreement with the third country from which the deportation is to take place.

This could also be important for the deportation centers outside the EU planned by Germany and other EU states. The centers, also known as "return hubs", are intended to bring people who are legally obliged to leave the country and who cannot initially be returned to their country of origin - for example because their home country refuses to take them back. If a return to the country of origin should become possible after negotiations, Frontex employees could take over the transfer.

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In the event of crises, the Commission proposal provides for a rapid reaction force that can be deployed at the border at short notice at the request of an affected member state. EU Migration Commissioner Brunner had already announced at the end of September that such a unit should be on site within 24 hours. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) also called for this.

The reason for the idea was the migration crisis in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta at the end of July, in which an estimated 80,000 people arrived there from Morocco within a very short time.

The idea of ​​a force for immediate operations is not entirely new. The 2019 Frontex mandate already stipulates that part of the standing reserve can be used for immediate operations (Article 54). Up to and including 2024, 1,500 employees were planned for this task - none more in the following years.

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According to the plan, the increase in personnel will also be accompanied by the establishment of a new reserve. Up to 17,000 employees from the member states should be available for the new European border and deportation force.

The staff employed directly by Frontex should increase from 3,000 to 6,000, as the EU Commission proposes. In any case, 7,000 emergency services were planned for 2027, which would be made available by the member states on a long-term or temporary basis.

Before the proposals can be implemented, the European Parliament and the Council of EU states must deal with them.

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Several German politicians reacted to the EU plans with sharp criticism. “It is shameful that the EU continues to push forward with its unspeakable isolation policy,” said Green Party domestic politician Marcel Emmerich. The answer to the “many deaths in Ceuta” must be a responsible and solidarity-based migration policy instead of “even more isolation”.

The SPD MP Birgit Sippel called for more control of the agency. She rejects making Frontex, as an “EU deportation agency, an accomplice of a merciless deportation policy.”

The left-wing politician Clara Bünger warned that there should be “no legal vacuum for Frontex”. The authority should be dissolved. Instead, the money spent on this must be put into civil European sea rescue and into the municipalities that take in refugees.

Frontex is repeatedly criticized for not adequately protecting the rights of refugees and migrants. In recent years, this has particularly involved so-called pushbacks by national authorities, in which people were sometimes violently pushed back - for example in Greece. Frontex was accused of failing to prevent or adequately investigate such incidents.

The agency actually has its own control mechanisms: It uses observers to accompany operations and check whether fundamental rights have been violated - for example by the national authorities.

This topic in the program: RBB24 Inforadio | News | Oct 27, 2026 | 11:24 amThe First | daily news | Oct 27, 2026 | 8 p.m