GMV wins the EUROSUR project
The technology business group GMV is going to prime the contract for transition of the EUROSUR network from pilot project to operational status. GMV will take on responsibility for execution, management and supervision of this 12-million-euro project over a four-year period.
The European Commission’s European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) establishes a mechanism for cooperation and swapping information, allowing member-state border-control authorities and Frontex to collaborate in all the following aims:
- Reduce the number of undetected illegal immigrants in the Schengen area
- Reduce sea deaths among illegal immigrants
- Increase the EU’s internal security by preventing crime on its external borders
During the system’s pilot phase, since late 2010, GMV has been designing, developing and deploying a point-to-point network that connects up 18 EU member states and Frontex (the EUROSUR network); this makes secure information exchange possible between all network nodes. The EUROSUR network provides a platform on which each member state (through its corresponding National Coordination Center: NCC) and Frontex can exchange information on EU external border surveillance. All the nodes are connected up to each other in a decentralized way, with all data being replicated under bilateral agreements between each member country.
The pilot project was the brainchild of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex, shortened from the French Frontières extérieures). The Warsaw-based Frontex was set up to help member states train up their national border guards, monitor the development of research into the control and surveillance of external borders, help member states in circumstances requiring increased technical and operational assistance at external borders and provide them with the necessary support in organizing joint return operations.
In October 2013 the European Parliament finally approved the umbrella EUROSUR legislation, taking in the system developed by GMV for Frontex and establishing the legal bases for cooperation between EU member states and Frontex. This legislation came into force on 2 December 2013 and has been underpinning the whole system ever since.
Frontex estimates that at least 72,000 people illegally entered the EU via land and sea routes in 2012. With this new system member countries will now be able to share real-time information on important security incidents at the EU’s external borders, together with satellite images, weather forecasts and an indication of ship positions. This will enable law-enforcement authorities to act with the necessary speed to save the lives of people trying to enter the EU illegally, especially via the Mediterranean, and also to help in the fight against crime, particularly human and drugs trafficking.
The EUROSUR project fits in perfectly with GMV’s ongoing strategy of internationalizing its defense and security activities and consolidates its leadership within European border surveillance activities.