Samenvatting

In 2015 a high number of refugees came into Europe illegally. The European Union faced remarkable pressure at its
external borders. The refugee crisis has revealed that Frontex, the current European external border management
agency, was not capable of effectively controlling the external borders of the European Union. Therefore, it was
necessary to introduce a new European external border management agency: the European Border and Coast Guard
Agency.
The aim of this research is to assess whether this agency is capable of effectively managing the external borders.
The main research question is therefore: “Does the European Border and Coast Guard Agency have the competences
to be a better functioning European border guard capable of addressing the shortcomings of Frontex?”. If enactment
of European border management remains weak on the ground, the new agency will have created unrealisable and
problematic expectations. This dissertation calls on the European Union to give higher priority to policies dealing
with structural compliance with European border management by all member states.
In order to gather the necessary information, a qualitative research method is utilised in this research. The qualitative
method used is desk research. Secondary literature is collated and evaluated. Several sources are considered,
including books, academic articles, online journals, government reports, websites of professional organisations, and
peer-reviewed publications.
Existing research reports on Frontex have demonstrated that Frontex had limitations in effectively managing the
external borders of the European Union, due to the lack of appropriate competences. These inadequate competences
included the lack of its own resources, dependence on member states, and the unwillingness of member states to
contribute to Frontex’s operations. The key shortcomings of Frontex are outlined. The competences of the European
Border and Coast Guard Agency, which should be capable of addressing Frontex’s key shortcomings are also
considered. Based on these findings, conclusions are drawn as to whether these shortcomings can be expected to be
addressed with the competences of the new agency.
Based on the findings, the conclusion shows that the new agency is not expected to address all the key shortcomings
of Frontex. The new agency still needs to make some improvements in its competences to implement joint
operations, return operations and effectively undertake risk analysis. It is recommended that the new agency should
have an independent role in relation to those competences and should have an executive competence in order to
better implement its activities.