“Between now and 2027 we want to produce an additional 10,000 border guards. We are now going to bring that forward to 2020,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, told Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the start of Austria’s sixth-months presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) on 1 July 2018.1 In his State of the European Union (SOTEU) speech on 12 September, the Commission President confirmed this number and provided a blueprint for the future of Frontex.2 For the EU, the proposed increase in Frontex’s resources will likely become a key argument to counter criticism from populist parties and demonstrate its determination to manage migration effectively