Some 7,500 applicants had applied for the 700 positions, which is part of a much larger bid to create a standing corps of 10,000 guards under the agency's aegis over the next several years.
"For the first time, and this is also new, and we are also making preparations for that, for the first time, Frontex staff will put on European Union uniforms, not to represent their nations, but to represent the entire European Union," Fabrice Leggeri, the head of the Warsaw-based agency, told reporters on Friday (17 January).
Many applicants appear to be retired military personnel, seeking a possible second career complete with generous EU salaries and perks.
Leggeri said the agency had expanded the scope of potential applicants in order not to deplete existing national border guard agencies.
Once recruited, the 700 will still have to undergo a six-month training exercise before being deployed in the field at the EU's external borders early next year.
Although most appear to come from what Leggeri described as "new" and southern EU states, he also noted some had applied from Nordic EU countries.
Political masters and law makers at the EU institutions, in early 2019, reached an agreement to boost the agency's mandate in the wake of a wider shift to clamp down on the EU's external borders.
That agreement included creating a standing corps of 10,000 guards by 2027 and dovetailed into an agency that primarily saw itself as doing law enforcement work.
Read more: Thousands apply for EU border guard posts
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