Brussels: The Frontex mandate would grow sharply under a proposal the European Commission presented on 27 October 2026, with a bigger standing corps, a central role on returns and tools for faster crisis response. Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner presented the plan at a press conference. The Frontex mandate changes only if the European Parliament and the Council agree.

The Commission wants the agency’s standing corps to reach 30,000 officers, doubling its own strength, and it proposes a 17,000-officer European border and return reserve. Those officers would come on top of about 7,000 already seconded by member states, according to the Commission’s migration page. Eunews reports that the proposal asks for 11.8 billion euros for Frontex in the ongoing talks on the next long-term budget, against about six billion today.

Returns sit at the centre of the Frontex mandate reform. A new Return Coordination Centre would gather operational information and support planning, while Frontex help would cover the whole process from early identification to reintegration. The agency could also organise returns from one non-EU country to another, but only under a specific agreement that respects fundamental rights and non-refoulement.

Brunner argued that current results fall short of the goal. He told reporters that Frontex handled 64,000 returns last year on more than 220 flights, and that despite return rates of 33 percent the EU had not achieved what it set out to do. Eunews adds that member states themselves are asking for the change.

Crisis response gets new tools under the Frontex mandate as well. The Commission proposes a Quick Reaction Force that can deploy at short notice on the decision of the Frontex executive director after a member state asks for help. It also wants an Online Monitoring and Response Centre to track public social media for border-security risks, and a rule that governments report significant events within 24 hours through the EUROSUR system.

The Commission tabled a companion regulation the same day to digitalise return, readmission and reintegration case management. It would create three tools rather than a new central database, and an EU official hopes implementation can finish within four years. Commission officials cited the Ceuta events of summer 2026 as a trigger for the wider package.

The Frontex mandate now moves to Parliament and the Council, and neither source gives a vote date. Lawmakers will weigh sovereignty concerns, fundamental-rights safeguards and the price tag against the promise of faster returns. The Frontex mandate outcome will shape how the EU polices its external borders for the rest of the decade.