From the very beginning, the European project includes the obligation to encourage the free movement of people. This began to take shape in the 1980s, when five member states decided to create a common area of free movement – a territory without internal borders. The Schengen area began operating in 1995, allowing people to move freely as internal border controls were abolished, and a single external border was created. This development has brought with it the need for coordinated protection of the external border according to common standards, giving the governments and citizens confidence in the security of the free travel area, and the confidence that they can trust other countries to keep the borders secure. On the basis of integrated cooperation between state governments, in 2004 the European Council established Frontex, the Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the European Union, which in 2016 assumed its current name and structure as Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. With the new Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard, in 2019 the Agency's mandate was further expanded, paving the way for the creation of the first uniformed service of the European Union and a permanent force with 10,000 officers equipped with the latest equipment and executive powers to perform the main tasks such as monitoring migration flows, conducting risk analysis and vulnerability assessment, coordinating and organizing joint operations and rapid border interventions, providing assistance to EU member states in return operations and fighting organized cross-border crime and terrorism at the external borders of the European Union, providing support in border police training and experts from member states, including the implementation of common training standards and assistance in technical and operational cooperation between member states and countries that are not members of the European Union. The mission of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency is to promote, coordinate and develop European border management in accordance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the concept of integrated border management. Frontex, in cooperation with member states/countries associated with Schengen, promotes the process of harmonization, integration and development of best practices in the field of integrated border management. The fundamental goal of this strategy is to strengthen the capabilities and capacities of border management and unify them at a single and common European level within the framework of a common vision – the protection of the European area of freedom, security and justice.