Europol hosts a visit of the Frontex Management Board

On 11 February 2016, Matthias Ruete, Director General of the European Commission's Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME), Fabrice Leggeri, Executive Director of Frontex, members of the Frontex Management Board and Frontex officials visited Europol headquarters in The Hague. The visit offered an opportunity to discuss bilateral cooperation and implementation of the operational agreement between Frontex and Europol.

The participants met with Europol Director Rob Wainwright and Europol experts to discuss Europol's role in the fight against organised crime groups involved in facilitating irregular migration. Facilitated irregular migration and migrant smuggling remain a key challenge that requires close cooperation between Europol and Frontex, and the two agencies can offer support to EU Member States to combat these crimes. Europol's operational capabilities, state-of-the-art IT systems, and its unique tools for intelligence sharing that enable the coordination of a high number of complex international investigations were also covered during the meeting.