European Commission proposes strengthening Frontex

On October 27, 2026, the European Commission published a fact sheet and formally proposed strengthening Frontex, with the goal of strengthening border protection, expanding return functions and enhancing crisis response capacity. The proposal would make Frontex the executing agency for EU return operations, and would create a new Return Coordination Centre, a European Border and Return Reserve, a rapid reaction force and an online monitoring centre. On personnel, Frontex currently has nearly 3,000 staff, and the standing corps will reach 10,000 by 2027; the proposal would gradually increase its own staff to 6,000 and create a new European Border and Return Reserve of up to 17,000. Regarding the total size of the standing corps, one report said it would gradually increase to 30,000 officers, of which the new reserve would account for 17,000, and the size of existing seconded personnel from member states would be doubled. The proposal would also allow Frontex to carry out returns between non-EU countries under EU-level agreements, and the budget is consistent with the 11.8 billion euros arrangement in the 2028-2034 long-term budget. The Commission also proposed a regulation on digitalizing the return, re-entry and reintegration process, to support implementation of the new Return Regulation that took effect on October 16. Subsequent reports that day said the proposal would amend the Frontex mandate, establish a rapid reaction force, upgrade EUROSUR, and create a new online monitoring and response centre to monitor public social media content; the Commission said illegal border crossings fell 55% over the past two years, and the new entry/exit system registered more than 250 million crossings in its first year. The proposal is currently at the stage of being put forward by the European Commission.