Cooperation as an Essential Component of European Integrated Border Management (EIBM)

The European Union has given new impetus to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, making important progress in trying to adapt the European response to the current migratory reality. The COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis generated by the war in Ukraine have, once again, highlighted the significant challenges faced by the European Union. Ongoing migration flows and rapidly evolving security challenges have resulted in a growing common awareness within the EU of the need to jointly address these new geostrategic challenges. In the Pact, the migration issue is addressed from a comprehensive approach, proposing different measures, and highlighting the role of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) in the management of the EU’s external borders. Regarding the EU’s international cooperation on migration and borders, Frontex emerges as the main player. This paper seeks to elaborate and analyse the legal frameworks enabling the Frontex Agency to implement its external dimension. It also examines the Agency’s international cooperation in the light of the new Frontex regulation and from the perspective of an essential component of European integrated border management (EIBM). Frontex can now provide support through joint operations on the territory of any third country, without the limitation of the neighbourhood tie.