EU-agentschap voor de grensbewaking gaat het toezicht uitbreiden (en)

BRUSSELS - Frontex, the pan-European border agency based in Warsaw, is mandated to co-ordinate member state border police patrols on Europe's external frontiers.

But its executive director, Ilkka Laitinen, told EUobserver that the agency is looking to expand its surveillance operations beyond the EU to develop a so-called common pre-frontier intelligence picture (CPIP).

"This is where Frontex is due to arrange the delivery and the production of additional surveillance data from an area that is beyond the border, typically we are talking about international borders or some further areas," said Laitinen.

Laitinen said traditional surveillance methods rely on patrols and manned-aircraft.

Much more cost-effective, he said, are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that could be deployed at sea to locate, for instance, migrants in distress.

"There are many legal questions to be solved. But technologically speaking, it [UAV] seems to be a reliable and cost-effective means for surveillance among others," he said.

Laitinen said the data gathered for the CPIPs could come from a variety of sources, including "traditional means if they are legible or by some UAVs or satellite images and so on."

Frontex is mandated to help steer the research and development of surveillance technologies and indirectly works with the industry through consortiums.

One such area is remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), currently dominated by US and Israeli aeronautics industries. The European Commission said in a staff working document that EU companies are lagging behind in a market that could generate billions in profits.

Around 400 RPAS are currently under development in 19 member states.

"Our experience with the co-operation with the industry is very positive, they have a lot of good ideas and they brought many new innovations. They innovate to a certain extent they have been able to make the border guards think things in a new way," said Laitinen.

Big firms in the EU market like Dassault, Thales and BAE Systems complain that strict and fragmented regulations in member states on unmanned aircraft hamper their development.

They say the systems, which serve a dual military and civilian purpose, could generate €4.6 billion in profits annually.

One contact at Thales said some may attempt to circumvent the restrictions by placing a person in the remotely operated vehicle.

"He would be there for safety purposes," he said.

Other companies like Swedish aviation firm Saab, which hosted a Brussels seminar in early November on external borders, is also involved in developing coastal and land border security kit.

This includes watchtowers, UAVs, early warning control systems and naval and ground based radars among others.

The company showcased its Saab 340 maritime security aircraft, which comes equipped with a high-resolution TV-camera and electro-optical sensors capable of detecting debris or people at sea.

Among the speakers at the Saab event was Erik Berglund, who heads capacity building at Frontex.

He noted that Frontex is launching a pilot project, along with the European Union Satellite Centre, to use satellite based information on "areas that are a bit far away from the European borders."

CPIPs, he said, could include surveillance data collected as far away as Libya, Syria or Mali.

He also said that Frontex could acquire its "own" resources.

“This does not mean we will start buying our own ships. This means more that we will buy services, for example, air-borne and maritime surveillance deployed to the Mediterranean to reinforce member states under pressure like when we had this Arab spring," he noted.