Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones: The Empowerment of EU Agencies in EU Border Management

This fellowship presents a significant opportunity to advance my academic career by building upon my PhD research, collecting additional data, producing and disseminating high-quality research outputs. As for the wider context for my PhD research, we see a continuation of threat perceptions and decision-making patterns that have dominated EU border controls since their inception in 1999. A string of terrorist attacks in the early 2000s brought border controls and internal security to the heart of EU political and bureaucratic practices. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, commonly known as Frontex, was accordingly set up in 2004 and became operational at a speed highly unusual for the Union bodies. Within the framework of the European integrated border management, other EU agencies (e.g. European Union Agency for Asylum) that were set up to respond to other policy needs have increasingly collaborated with Frontex and involved in border controls and surveillance. Against this backdrop, my PhD research interrogates how the empowerment of the concerned agencies has shaped the EU's approach to external borders. Its primary objective is to map the proliferation of EU agencies in border management, understand the underlying mechanisms, and identify challenges and opportunities in implementing EU integrated border management.

By analysing the evolution of Frontex's joint operations, access to information, inter-agency cooperation, and international action, my research demonstrates that the initial delegation to Frontex created gaps in Member States' control over subsequent institutional fine-tuning. This has led to a self-reinforcing coordination approach to border control, diminishing Member States' policy autonomy, and strengthening the EU regulation on border management. Moreover, the empowerment of the concerned
agencies has contributed to the institutionalisation of common administrative capacity at the EU level and an enhanced cooperation with third countries in migration controls. My thesis thus challenges intergovernmental accounts of EU external borders policy that prioritise Member States'sovereignty and downplay the role of EU bodies in transnational coordination and policy implementation.

In addition to enriching our empirical knowledge of EU border management dynamics, my research also contributes to the advance of the principal-agent model by relaxing the model's restrictive assumption of information asymmetry. By integrating the model with insights from historical institutionalism, the research unveils the role of endogenous dynamics and institutional inertia in gradual institutional change. It highlights that, rather than being passive actors in the system, the concerned agencies have actively shaped the institutional context in which they operate and the ways in which they interact with other policy actors. Ultimately, the research suggests that the concerned agencies are not only an important part of the EU's border regime, but also have strong potential to shape the course of European
integration.

This fellowship provides a valuable opportunity for me to further enrich my research by collecting additional data through deskwork, interviews and fieldwork. These will solidify the theoretical framework and empirical findings of my research. Furthermore, the field research component will offer a unique platform for me to engage with a diverse range of stakeholders and expand my professional network. This interaction with subject matter experts and peers will be instrumental in shaping my future academic pursuits, as it will provide me with a deeper understanding of the field and opportunities to collaborate with leading researchers in the field.