Brussels wants Frontex able to deploy within a day and to steer returns

The European Commission on Tuesday proposed a major expansion of Frontex, the EU border and coast guard agency. In the event of a sudden mass influx at the external borders, the agency should be able to deploy within 24 hours, La Libre reports. The trigger is Ceuta, where some 72,000 people arrived over two days in July. Commissioner Magnus Brunner wants Frontex to be able to step in within hours rather than weeks, De Standaard writes. To that end, a European border reserve is to be set up, growing to 30,000 border guards within fifteen years.

According to La Libre, the budget would double to 11.8 billion euros for the 2028-2034 period. Frontex would also monitor social media and be able to flag illegal content directly to the platforms.

The biggest shift concerns returns. HLN reports that Frontex would be allowed to carry out return operations from one non-EU country to another. The agency would get its own return coordination centre, and according to Heise, linked databases and automated case management are meant to digitise and speed up procedures. At present only about a third of return decisions are carried out, La Libre notes. Member states and the European Parliament still have to approve the proposal, and member states keep the final say on deportations.