Conference on the European system of border guards

ROME - Frontex, in association with the Academy of European Law (ERA), announces the upcoming conference “The Feasibility of a European System of Border Guards (ESBG): A Practitioners Perspective.” The event will be held in Warsaw between October 28 and 29 and will gather together various agency and departmental stakeholders as well as representatives from national border authorities across Europe. Together, they will debate the merits such a system would entail as well as its practical and legal obstacles.
 
The feasibility of the creation of a European System of Border Guards (ESBG), as indicated in the Stockholm Programme, is closely linked to the debate on the long-term development of Frontex and, as such, will influence its future as an EU Agency. This conference aims to provide input to the debate on the feasibility of a European System of Border Guards by looking, from a practitioner’s point of view, at the added value that such a system could bring. By focusing the discussion around different aspects such as the legal framework, the operational challenges, the necessary capacities, as well as interagency cooperation, different stakeholders will be able to provide their views on the feasibility of an ESBG, notably which gaps it would fill, and what shape it should take, if any. 
 
Key Topics to be discussed:
 
- Legal perspectives and possibilities under the Treaty of Lisbon for an ESBG. Options for enhanced operational coordination and integration of national border control operations.
A more European approach in the development of national border management capacities.
- Integrated Border Management (IBM) with a focus on new avenues for cooperation with other agencies and bodies that would ensure more efficient cooperation at the EU’s external borders.
 
Ilkka Laitinen, Frontex Executive Director, will make the keynote speech and the final remarks.
 
 
Ilkka Laitinen, Executive Director of Frontex
Search and rescue - JO Hermes, Lampedusa 2013