Terrorism, organised crime, cybercrime, child exploitation, asylum files, return procedures and the EU’s external frontier all land on one desk in Brussels: the Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, known as DG HOME.
The Commission describes the department’s brief as internal security, migration and border management. It does not work alone. Policy is drawn up with member states, EU agencies, international organisations and other stakeholders.
Who runs it
Magnus Brunner is the Commissioner who sets the political direction. Day to day, the department answers to Director-General Beate Gminder, with Olivier Onidi and Johannes Luchner as her deputies.
Gminder is a career Commission official. She was previously a Deputy Director-General at DG HOME and headed the Task Force on Migration Management, and before that she served as Secretary General of the European Ombudsman. A Vienna Migration Conference profile says she is responsible for carrying out the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, for keeping the Schengen area of free movement “open and fully functioning,” and for strengthening internal security across the Union. On October 21, 2025 she spoke at that conference on a panel called “Making EU migration reform work.”
Three areas of work
On security, the department covers terrorism and organised crime, the prevention of radicalisation, protection of critical infrastructure, cybercrime and child exploitation.
On migration, it oversees the Pact on Migration and Asylum with the member states, working on the management of migration flows, legal pathways and coordinated returns.
On borders, it is building what it calls “an integrated border management approach for the EU.” The stated goal is a “complete and fully functioning Schengen area,” where people move freely inside while the outer border is run under common controls.
Brunner’s stated aim for the department is “a safer, more secure Union online and offline.” The Commission also publishes the meetings that DG HOME’s senior managers hold with interest representatives.
Sources
- Migration and Home Affairs (European Commission)
- Beate Gminder (Vienna Migration Conference speaker profile)
