Paper Titles & Abstracts

In its operations in the Mediterranean and on the Eastern land border, Frontex, the EU border agency, is relying on working arrangements to co-opt third countries in border control. Operational cooperation with third countries can lead to information exchange, risk analysis, training, research and development, joint operations and pilot projects. The agency has in particular prioritized working with neighbourhood and Mediterranean countries.This issue has raised the attention of the academic community, which has been interested in issues of transparency and legality around the external relations of Frontex. This paper proposes to look at Frontex' external relations from a legitimacy perspective, drawing on prior work with A. Schout. First, it will investigate the legitimacy dimension of Frontex' external relations both from an input and output legitimacy perspective. Secondly it will look conduct a comparative study of Frontex relationship with Libya and with Turkey. Key objectives will be to assess comparatively this legitimacy framework. Findings will then be contextualized in the broader debate of the impact of Frontex relations on third countries and what this tells us about the role of JHA agencies in the external dimension of JHA.