Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos at the Kapitan Andreevo, Bulgaria, checkpoint | Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images New border force guards Europe’s ‘broken fence’ The border guard is projected to have 1,000 employees by 2020 and a budget of €320 million.

KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria — In a rare display of European consensus on migration, the EU launched a joint force Thursday to police the borders of the Schengen zone in response to leaders' calls for stricter controls of the bloc's external frontiers.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, hosting the event on the border with Turkey, said Europe had certainly not become a fortress, but “a yard with a broken fence” which the new patrols would try to repair. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said it would “help us to get back to Schengen,” referring to the suspension of passport-free travel by some of the 26 European countries in the zone.

It was a low-key ceremony in a tent at the main checkpoint between Bulgaria and Turkey, with a bouquet of flowers as the sole decoration.

European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos jokingly referred to the man in charge of the European Border and Coast Guard (EBCG), Fabrice Leggeri, as a "five-star general." Unlike its predecessor Frontex, which relied on staff loaned by EU member countries, Leggeri's new force will have its own robust financial resources and personnel.

The border guard is projected to have 1,000 employees by 2020 and a budget of €320 million — double the current budget of Frontex. It will draw from a rapid-reserve pool of at least 1,500 officers guards, who will wear their own countries' uniforms but be available for joint EU missions at short notice.

Avramopoulos said governments need to "think, behave and act in a more European way when it comes to migration policy."

"It’s a big step forward from an operational standpoint," said Leggeri, looking forward to no longer having to scrounge staff from EU countries, thanks to a new system of fixed quotas and the new agency's powers to make specific requests. "One year ago, it was very difficult to get staff. We could hardly get half of what we had asked for."

The biggest contributors to the border guard are Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Non-EU countries Norway, Switzerland and Iceland, which have signed up to Schengen, are also going to contribute, unlike the U.K. which opted out of Schengen.

Avramopoulos urged member countries to uphold their commitments, as some governments need to "think, behave and act in a more European way when it comes to migration policy."

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced plans to establish the agency in September last year and the legislative process began in December that year. With a touch of pride, Avrampolous said it had become “reality in less than nine months,” as opposed to the two years or so it usually takes EU legislation to see the light of day.

The site of the first deployment is politically sensitive, though not a migration flashpoint like Greece or Italy's sea borders. Between January and August this year, 2,361 irregular migrants crossed into Bulgaria from Turkey, which was 43 percent less than the same period last year, according to Frontex, which called the mission a “precautionary” one.

The mission was warmly welcomed by Borisov. With the Western Balkans route more or less closed, more migrants now stay in Bulgaria.

The new agency is equipped with what it calls “precautionary” means, including dogs from Poland and Romania, and thermo-vision vans.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has complained about the EU's response to the refugee crisis, but Avrampolous suggested such complaints were not justified. “We all know Italy is under huge pressure,” he said, and Renzi should “know we’re behind it ... It’s up to Italian authorities to tell us what they need,” added the commissioner, inviting Rome to specify whether it needed funds, equipment, personnel, a Frontex mission or political support.

The new agency is equipped with what it calls “precautionary” means, including dogs from Poland and Romania, and thermo-vision vans. The border officers wore nine different uniforms, all with the blue insignia of the new EU force on their arms.

Avrampolous said he would soon be travelling to African countries including Senegal and Mali to seek their cooperation in "keeping their nationals in those countries" and negotiate agreements modelled on the EU's refugee deal with Turkey, providing funding in exchange for keeping potential refugees at home so that they never have to run up against the EBCG.