Frontex, the EU’s border force, swells in size

FOR MOSTEU of its history, the European Union commanded no troops. It was not that sort of outfit. The idea of gun-toting Euro-soldiers was more a Eurosceptic bogeyman than a serious scheme. Yet on January 11th the bloc tweeted proudly that “[f]or the first time, the European Union has its own uniformed service”. A video, set to rousing music, showed a blue-clad, side-capped guard with the insignia not of any member state, but of the star-circled flag of Europe—a member of the new standing corps of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, more commonly known as Frontex. But if the agency’s rise exemplifies the union’s march towards something resembling a state, it also illustrates how unsteady, and occasionally ugly, that advance may be.When the idea of a joint border force was first mooted around the turn of the millennium, member states balked at the idea. Many had just abolished their national currencies and adopted the euro; pooling yet more sovereignty in a highly sensitive area was a step too far. Frontex eventually came into being in 2004, with a tiny budget and meagre staff, after a surge of irregular migration into the Canary Islands. But it was the migration crisis of 2015 that would transform its fortunes.