This book examines the role of European Union (EU) agencies in the EU’s external border control policy, looking at how the empowerment of particular bodies has shaped the management of their external borders and influenced EU governance more broadly.
Focussing on four key aspects of agency involvement – joint sea operations, information access, inter-agency cooperation, and international action – the book sheds light on the daily policy implementation and operational collaboration at the EU’s external borders and beyond. It finds that the agencies increasingly demonstrated the capacity to sway decision-making and implementation from within. This has led to a reduction in Member States’ policy autonomy, an increase in EU oversight over border management, and the institutionalisation of a common administrative capacity at the EU level, leading to a shift in the EU’s approach to border management towards integration.
This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of border management, migration studies and asylum, EU administration and agencies and more broadly to European studies, international relations, and public administration.
Introduction
1. A Principal-Agent Historical Institutionalist Approach
2. The Emergence of EU agencies in an Emergent European Integrated Border Management
3. Frontex and Operational Coordination at the Southern Maritime Borders
4. Information Asymmetry and Goal Conflict between Stakeholders
5. Inter-Agency Cooperation in EU Border Management
6. Cooperation with Third Countries and the External Dimension of EU Border Controls
Conclusions
Biography
Yichen Zhong is an ESRC Fellow at Aston University’s School of Social Science and Humanities, UK.
