Border Encroachments: Comparing Cooperative Border Controls Along the EU’s External Frontier

The aim of this article is to analyse the cooperation between European and neighbouring countries in controlling the outer borders of the EU. Based on a comparison of six case studies of cross-border cooperation – Italy-Albania, Italy-Libya, Spain-Morocco, Spain-Mauritania, Spain-Senegal, and Greece-Turkey – the article shows that border controls along the external frontier of the EU have not only become increasingly collaborative but, in most cases, have also involved an outward expansion of the border enforcement apparatus of European countries into the sovereign space of adjacent states such as their territorial waters and even their territories. The modalities and extent of these border encroachments have varied considerably, however. While several factors are identified which have impacted these extended border controls, the most important seems to be the power differential between the two countries concerned: the greater the power asymmetry – broadly defined in military and economic terms – between the two states involved in cooperative border controls, the more far-reaching the intrusion of border enforcement efforts into the weaker country’s jurisdiction has been.