Frontex

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, commonly known as Frontex, from frontières extérieures, is an agency of the European Union headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. In coordination with the border and coast guards of member states, it exercises border control of the European Schengen Area, a task within the area of freedom, security and justice domain. Formally, the Agency's remit is to "support Member States on the ground in their efforts to protect the external borders"; it does not have authority to act otherwise unless "external border control" [by a member state] "is rendered ineffective to such an extent that it risks jeopardising the functioning of the Schengen area". Frontex was established in 2004 as the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders and is primarily responsible for coordinating border control efforts. In response to the European migrant crisis of 2015–2016, the European Commission proposed on 15 December 2015 to extend Frontex's mandate and to transform it into a fully-fledged European Border and Coast Guard Agency.