EU Commission proposes a 30,000-strong Frontex with a central role in returns

The European Commission wants to strengthen Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, considerably. Under a proposal published on 27 October 2026, the agency's standing corps would grow gradually to 30,000 officers, and Frontex would become the EU's central actor for returns. The Commission also put forward a regulation to digitalise return procedures across the EU. Germany's Bundesrat, the chamber of the 16 states, registered that second proposal on 28 October as file 632/26.

The Commission points to progress: in the past two years illegal border crossings have fallen by more than half, and the return rate has risen above 30%. But a changed geopolitical and security environment is testing the EU's external borders, it says.

Europe decides who comes to our Union and under what circumstances.

More staff and its own equipment

Officers in the new reserve would remain national border guards at the disposal of their own countries, receive Frontex training and be deployed to the external borders when needed. Frontex would also be able to buy, lease and co-own equipment and run joint procurement with member states, including as a central purchasing body for digital and AI-enabled tools.

Returns and rapid deployments

A new Return Coordination Centre would collect and analyse member states' data on returns and reintegration and support planning and coordination. Member states would tell Frontex every year by 1 November how many returns they plan and what help they need. Frontex could also organise returns from one non-EU country to another, provided the EU concludes an agreement with the country concerned, and subject to fundamental rights and the principle of non-refoulement. The EU Reintegration Programme, which runs in more than 40 non-EU countries, has registered almost 58,000 people since June 2022.

For crises, the Commission proposes a Quick Reaction Force. A member state could request it, Frontex's Executive Director would decide, and deployment would follow at short notice, for instance within 24 hours, for up to one month. An Online Monitoring and Response Centre would watch publicly accessible social media content, and member states would have to report events with a potentially significant impact on EU borders within 24 hours through the EUROSUR network. The Commission cites lessons from this year's crisis in Ceuta.

Germany's place in the return figures

Germany already plays a large part in returns. In the second quarter of 2026, EU countries returned 36,825 people to third countries following an order to leave, 9.7% more than a year earlier, according to Eurostat. Germany accounted for 8,400, more than any other country and more than one in five of all returns in the EU (our calculation). It issued 8,160 orders to leave, the third-highest number after France and Portugal. At home, Germany's Federal Police may since 28 October apply for detention pending deportation themselves.

What happens next

The European Parliament and the Council now have to agree on both regulations. The digitalisation regulation is meant to support the new Return Regulation, which entered into force on 16 October: Frontex would lead the development of the digital architecture, the EU agency eu-LISA would provide the secure channel between national authorities, and existing systems such as the Schengen Information System and Eurodac would be used. The Bundesrat has not yet published documents on the file. How the states' chamber can respond to an EU proposal was shown in October by its objection to the EU Affordable Housing Act.