AB'nin dış sınır yönetimine yeni işlevselci bir yaklaşım: Frontex örneği

This thesis examines the integration of the external border management in the European Union (EU) through the theoretical lens of neofunctionalism with the case study of Frontex. Although the external border management area is under shared competence, the establishment of Frontex as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) agency in 2004 and its upgrading to the European Border and Coast Guard (EBCG) in 2016 to ameliorate the efficiency of management at the external borders of the Union represented an important step in the communitarization of the external border management of the EU member states (MS) compared to the previous intergovernmental attempts of Schengen and Common Unit (CU). In this sense, this study elaborates the institutional and empirical developments in the establishment of Frontex and EBCG, and focuses on the actors and events influential in the process of external border management integration. The neofunctionalist tool of spillover is the mechanism used to explain integration in this context. Besides classical neofunctionalism and the theoretical tool of spillover, revised neofunctionalism is also taken into consideration in explaining the integration. While providing a case study on one of the AFSJ agencies Frontex, this study also aims to contribute to the literature with the use of one of the main and most criticized integration theories applied to one of the controversial areas of the EU integration. Keywords: EU, Frontex, neofunctionalism, external border management, integration