The operational plan of the European Agency for the management of cooperation on the external frontiers of EU member states (FRONTEX) was recently presented. The agency, based in Warsaw, has a budget of almost 35 million Euros for activities of coordination, assistance and control of national policies in the field of prevention and the crackdown on clandestine immigration. The next measures will consist of eleven joint operations along the terrestrial frontiers, six along marine frontiers and a further eleven for so-called air frontiers (within international airports). During 2007 FRONTEX will extend both technical and political cooperation and its field of action beyond EU frontiers to Russia, Ukraine, Mauritania, Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Turkey and the Western Balkans. It will also step up its collaboration with international organizations. Member states contribute to the operations of the Agency with Rapid Intervention Units on the frontiers (RABIT), a corps of ‘border police’: status, regulation and functions of RABIT ought to be given approval by June 2007.
