Border security

EU agrees new border, coast guard scheme

The European Union agreed Wednesday to set up a new border and coast guard agency to better manage migrant arrivals after more than a million people came to the EU in search of jobs or sanctuary last year.

The border and coast guard will be built up from the EU's border management agency Frontex. It would establish a pool of 1,500 border guards and technical equipment that the agency could deploy to areas of extraordinary migration flows within about 10 days in times of need. Liaison officers would be stationed in all member states with external borders to monitor those borders.

"We urgently need a European border and coast guard to strengthen our joined external borders in a structural way. With better border controls we have more control over migration streams and we enlarge the safety of our citizens," said Dutch Migration Minister Klaas Dijkhoff, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency and chaperoned the border guard plan through.