Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard, has signed a co-operation agreement with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The co-operation agreement with Macedonia will allow Frontex to deploy teams to the country, and carry out joint operations, which could prove vital to the EU’s ongoing strategy to address the challenges of irregular migration. During the crisis that began in 2015, many migrants arrived by sea in Greece, and travelled north through Macedonia and other neighbouring countries on their way to reach Western Europe.
The Commission intends for the new agreement with Macedonia to strengthen its capacity to protect Europe’s external borders, and increase the role of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency’s role by facilitating co-operation with Europe’s neighbours and partner countries. The legal procedures necessary to formally adopt the agreement will now begin, in both Macedonia and the EU.
As well as facilitating a reinforcement of the EU’s external borders, a European co-operation agreement with Macedonia also moves a step closer to fulfilling the European Commission’s ambitions in its strategy for ‘A credible enlargement perspective for and enhanced EU engagement with the Western Balkans’, by increasing the contributions made to EU security by its Western Balkans partner states.
How did the Commission react to the co-operation agreement with Macedonia?
According to the Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the agreement marks vital progress in the EU’s relationship with Macedonia, and might serve as a framework for future agreements with other partner countries that are still under negotiation.
He said: “I would like to congratulate the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on this important operational step forward in our co-operation on the ground. This agreement will allow the European Border and Coast Guard Agency to fully exercise its potential, reacting swiftly to migratory challenges and protecting our common borders. Today’s agreement is the second we have now initialled, and I hope for the ongoing negotiations with the other Western Balkans partners to be finalised quickly.”
