BRUSSELS — The European Union’s internal security apparatus has a new top political boss, but the civil servant actually running the day-to-day machinery is a veteran bureaucrat working without the word “acting” removed from her title. Beate Gminder is the acting Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, known inside the EU bubble as DG HOME. She took over the role on an interim basis and, as of December 1, 2024, still holds the job without permanent appointment.
Her office oversees a sprawling portfolio that touches the lives of every person crossing an internal EU border. Gminder works with two deputies.
Johannes Luchner handles what the Commission calls “horizontal affairs and migration.” Olivier Onidi runs the “Schengen & security” side and doubles as the EU Counter-Terrorism Co-ordinator. That dual role — one man responsible for both open borders and the bloc’s counter-terror response — tells you something about how Brussels sees the two issues. They are not separate files.
They are the same file. The political layer above them is new.
Magnus Brunner is the European Commissioner for Home Affairs under the von der Leyen Commission II, which took office after the 2024 European elections. Brunner is the politician. He sets the direction.
Gminder and her deputies are the ones who have to make it work. DG HOME’s core mission is built around three pillars. First, keep the Schengen area secure.
That is the zone of 26 European countries where internal border checks have been abolished. Second, build a common EU migration and asylum policy.
Third, talk to non-EU countries. The report from the Directorate-General frames these as ongoing tasks, not finished ones. They are described as work still in progress.
The Schengen piece is the most visible to ordinary Europeans. A zone of free movement that big — stretching from Portugal to Poland, from Greece to Norway — is a strategic asset and a vulnerability.
DG HOME’s job is to stop the vulnerability from overwhelming the asset. That means coordinating border guards, sharing intelligence, and making sure one country’s weak point does not become every country’s crisis. Migration and asylum policy is the harder part.
The report acknowledges the complexity directly: the policy must balance the rights of asylum seekers and migrants against the security and integrity of the Schengen area. That is not a technical problem. It is a political knife fight that has toppled governments across the continent.
The third pillar — dialogue with non-EU countries — is where the EU tries to push migration management outward. Keep people from reaching the border in the first place.
That means deals with origin and transit countries. It means money, diplomacy, and leverage. DG HOME is the department that has to make those relationships produce results.
All of this sits under the umbrella of something Brussels calls the area of freedom, security, and justice. AFSJ, in the acronym.
It is the legal and political framework that binds together the EU’s internal security policies. DG HOME is one of the key directorates-general responsible for delivering on that promise. The report makes clear that the work is done in partnership with EU member states, EU agencies like Frontex and Europol, international organizations, and other stakeholders.
No single actor owns the migration file. DG HOME’s role is to write the EU-level policy and then try to get everyone else to follow it. Gminder, Luchner, and Onidi are the people in the room when the policy gets drafted.
Brunner is the one who has to sell it to the European Parliament and the member states. Whether the system holds depends on whether all four can keep the machinery running while the politics around them keep shifting.
