Abstract

Denmark, as is known, maintains four EU cooperation opt-outs as a result of its Maastricht Treaty referendum on 18 May 1993. In spite of this, Denmark remains an active partner in matters relating to the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union, known as Frontex. The facts are that the Danish police have maintained a staff of Seconded National Experts (SNEs) in Warsaw since Frontex’s operational launch in 2005, and that Danish police regularly provide staff for Frontex Joint Support Teams (FJSTs) and are consequently also involved in related – and quite extensive – joint exercises. Denmark also contributes to the central Frontex registry for technical equipment for use in specific operational theatres, the so-called Centralised Record of Available Technical Equipment (CRATE), and it is no great secret that Denmark contributed to Frontex’s rapid border intervention team when Greece requested emergency assistance from Frontex because of the stress caused by immigration along the Greek-Turkish border from November 2010 to February 2011. Given Denmark’s judicial opt-out, how did Denmark come to participate in this type of cooperation? That is a question which is examined in greater detail in the article, which shows how the Danish Frontex cooperation is based upon interpretation of the notion to ‘build upon’ in the Protocol on the Integration of the Schengen Rules into the European Union, annexed to the Union Treaties.