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By APD writer Aditya Nugraha
BRUSSELS, Nov. 9 (APD) - The European Union (EU) has adopted regulations to establish standalone border security forces, making it the first to use permanent uniformed corps to watch the border around the bloc.
The adoption of the regulations proposed by the European Commission last year was expected to increase the bloc's current security forces nearly tenfold.
In the proposal to establish the corps, EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker said that the establishment of border security forces was necessary to allow it to respond to challenges as they arise.
The European Parliament and Council agreed on the proposal earlier this year before moving to formally adopt the regulation on Friday.
In a statement on its website, the European Commission said that the move will increase the European Border and Coast Guard Agency for the Schengen area, known as Frontex, to a standing corps of 10,000 border guards by 2027. It also increases Frontex's mandate to facilitate greater cooperation with non-EU countries.
Frontex currently has around 1,300 officers deployed at a given time for short missions.
"This will give the agency the right level of ambition to respond to the challenges facing Europe in managing migration and its external borders," the statement said.
The agency has called this new corps "Europe's first uniformed service." In October they began efforts to recruit over 700 new border guards to take up their posts in January 2021.
The corps will be charged with identity checks and authorizing or refusing entry, among other tasks on the ground. Member states remain responsible for managing their external borders.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)