Frontex

European Border and Coast Guard Agency

Agency overview
Formed	6 October 2016 (2016-10-06)
Preceding Agency	European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders
Jurisdiction	European Union
Headquarters	Warsaw, Poland
Employees	402 (2016) / 1000 (2020, proposed)
Annual budget	€ 254 million (2016)
Agency executives	Fabrice Leggeri, Executive Director Ralf Göbel, Chairperson of the Management Board
Key documents	Council Regulation (EC) No 2007/2004 Regulation (EU) 2016/1624
Website	frontex.europa.eu
Map
Schengen Area   Countries with open borders   Legally obliged to join

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (EBCG), commonly called Frontex (from French: Frontières extérieures for "external borders"), is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, tasked with border control of the European Schengen Area, in coordination with the border and coast guards of Schengen Area member states.

Frontex was established in 2004 as the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders, and primarily responsible for coordinating border control efforts. In response to the European migrant crisis of 2015-2016, the European Commission proposed on December 15, 2015, to extend Frontex's mandate and to transform it into a fully-fledged European Border and Coast Guard Agency. On 18 December 2015, the European Council roundly supported the proposal, and after a vote by the European Parliament, the European Border and Coast Guard was officially launched on 6 October 2016 at the Bulgarian external border with Turkey.

To enable the Agency to carry out its tasks, its budget would be gradually increased from the €143 million originally planned for 2015 up to €238 million in 2016, €281 million in 2017, and will reach €322 million (about US$350 million) in 2020. The staff of the agency would gradually increase from 402 members in 2016 to 1,000 by 2020.

Frontex, then officially the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders, was established by Council of Regulation (EC) 2007/2004. It began work on 3 October 2005 and was the first EU agency to be based in one of the new EU member states from 2004. Frontex' mission is to help European Union member states implement EU rules on external border controls and to coordinate cooperation between member states in external border management. While it remains the task of each member state to control its own borders, Frontex is vested to ensure that they all do so with the same high standard of efficiency. The agency's main tasks according to the Council Regulation are: