European Union, FRONTEX and security in the maritime borders. Towards an European model of humanized security at sea?

Abstract

The gradual abolition of internal borders in Europe according to the process of European integration has been giving rise to the need to set up an area of freedom, security and justice that gives meaning to a new community concept of the EU external border. Security is the central idea of this new concept projected with particular intensity in the southern maritime borders of the Union, the scene of the humanitarian tragedy involving the smuggling of migrants. The elements of humanitarian nature, historic, geographic extension and proximity, social inequality, economic imbalance, the increasing population pressure and high cost of media impact, introduces a problem that is really an extraordinary challenge for the EU. Community action in this area, mainly embodied by the FRONTEX Agency, is very difficult to articulate due to the complex net of agencies and national standards and international community to interact, causing it overlaps, gaps, but always with the conditioning of the State sovereignty, the only competent and ultimately responsible for the actions taken at the borders. The security approach prevailing in this area responds to the reason of State that derives from the projection of sovereignty over national borders, even to transcend international spaces and to the waters of third countries. The direct consequences for life, integrity and freedom of migrants have been tragic. However, more recent developments seem to suggest the idea of an emerging common model of humanized security at sea, according to the development of a «common maritime space of the EU» in status nascendi.