EU Border Management: Towards an Effective Control?

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the EU’s border policy and the development of an effective border strategy. The creation of the Schengen Area led to a shift in the understanding of the border, both conceptual and functional. The creation of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency—Frontex—represents the institutionalisation of the European border management policy, and it incorporates the concept of integrated border management (IBM) as part of its comprehensive approach to border management. In this sense, technology has facilitated the implementation of the EU’s IBM strategy. The EU’s border, asylum and immigration policies have developed a set of technological tools of control and surveillance, which are extremely useful to detect and identify citizens, mainly to deal with irregular border-cross movements. Nevertheless, it should be taken into account that the unregulated use of these systems might turn them into instruments of exclusion.