EU promises overhauls for Europol in June and Frontex in September

The European Commission is set to unveil plans next month to reinforce the EU’s police agency Europol, followed by a September proposal for the EU’s border force Frontex.

“Europol, we are nearly ready. You will have the proposal in June,” Olivier Onidi, a senior European Commission official told MEPs on Wednesday (6 May).

“Frontex, you will have it in September,” he added, noting a delay.

The commission plans will deliver major boosts to both agencies with nearly €12bn earmarked for Frontex and €3bn for Europol.

The proposed funding and likely enhanced powers for Frontex and Europol signal the European Union’s determination to curb irregular migration, increasingly framed as a security threat.

And it comes on the back of a much larger long-term budget proposal spanning 2028–2034, which has tripled – to approximately €81bn – funds earmarked for migration, border management, and internal security.

Those migration sums went unchallenged by the European Parliament last month after it adopted its own negotiation position on the long-term budget, which still needs to be agreed with the Council, representing member states.

Onidi, who was speaking to the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee, made no mention of the recent revelations by British, Greek and German media that allege widespread data and surveillance abuse at the Hague-based Europol.

Those reports say Europol operated a shadow IT system used to circumvent EU data protection rules by allowing staff to access sensitive data even of people not suspected of having committed any crime.

“These revelations are shocking, after so many years of oversight and supposed compliance efforts to ensure respect for personal data and fundamental rights,” said Saskia Bricmont, a Belgian Green MEP, in a press statement.

The revelations casts a shadow over the major changes expected in next month’s proposal, which includes a push to close Europol’s so-called information gap.

“We need Europol to become a real information hub,” EU home affairs commissioner Magnus Brunner said earlier this year.

He also called for making information sharing the default across the EU and automating it, while boosting Europol’s technological capabilities.

The agency has come under previous scrutiny, including revelations by this website that Frontex had shared sensitive data with Europol during briefing interviews with prospective asylum seekers, including staff working at NGOs.

As for the Frontex, which is based in Warsaw, is set to see its standing corp of officers expand from 10,000 to 30,000.

But crucially, it is also set to be given more surveillance capabilities and even more powers when it comes to deportations and border controls.

This includes possibly allowing the agency to help carry out deportations in countries outside the EU, as well as helping EU states set up deportation centres [return hubs] abroad.