Article
THE ROLE OF FRONTEX IN THE EU'S EXTERNAL BORDER GOVERNANCE POLICY: A Multi-Level Governance Perspective
Journal Publicuho, Vol. 8 No. 4 (2025), hlm. 3015–3024
Abstrak
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) is a special body established by the European Union (EU) to support coordination and operational cooperation in the management of the EU’s external borders. Rising levels of irregular migration have generated sustained policy pressure on external border management, most notably during the 2015 migration crisis, when more than 1.8 million irregular border crossings were recorded. Although detection figures declined in subsequent years, irregular migration remains a salient policy concern, with approximately 330,000 detections in 2022 and around 239,000 in 2024. This article examines the role of Frontex within the policy architecture of EU external border management from a cross-level governance perspective. It explores how Frontex collaborates with supranational and national authorities in governing the EU’s external borders within a fragmented distribution of authority. The study applies a qualitative descriptive methodology based on the analysis of EU policy documents, legal frameworks, and institutional reports. The analysis yields three main findings. First, Frontex functions as a policy coordinating and translating agency that aligns EU-level objectives with national border management practices. Second, its role is constrained by limited autonomous authority and strong dependence on national implementation, resulting in uneven policy outcomes across member states. Third, the division of responsibilities between Frontex and national authorities generates persistent challenges of accountability. The article concludes that limitations in coordination and accountability are not incidental, but reflect structural characteristics of EU external border governance under multi-level governance arrangements.