The process of institutionalising cooperation in the operative management of the EU’s external borders: The creation of Frontex

This article examines the configuration and progress made that has led – through the different treaties and programmes introduced in the European Union – to the creation of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). Specifically, this examination pays particular attention to AFSJ issues linked with surveillance and control of the EU’s external frontiers, which represents one of the key areas in the progress that has been made over the past two decades. Using a neo-institutional analytical perspective, the institutions are configured at the heart of this evolution from intergovernmental co-operation to the creation of a policy area or sphere of governance and even to the supranationalisation and institutionalisation of the initial activity. These processes have given rise to new institutions such as the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex). Thus, the final part of the article focuses on the creation of Frontex and on the debates regarding its future; the regulating of this body was in a phase of revision during Spain’s Presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2010.