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1. A European Border and Coast Guard standing corps with the capacity set out in Annex I shall be part of the Agency. The standing corps shall be composed of the following four categories of operational staff in accordance with the annual availability scheme set out in Annex I:

(a) category 1: statutory staff deployed as members of the teams in operational areas in accordance with Article 55, as well as staff responsible for the functioning of the ETIAS Central Unit;

(b) category 2: staff seconded from Member States to the Agency for a long term as part of the standing corps in accordance with Article 56;

(c) category 3: staff from Member States who are ready to be provided to the Agency for a short-term deployment as part of the standing corps in accordance with Article 57; and (d) category 4: the reserve for rapid reaction consisting of staff from the Member States who are ready to be deployed in accordance with Article 58 for the purposes of rapid border interventions in accordance with Article 39.

2. The Agency shall deploy members of the standing corps as members of the border management teams, migration management support teams and return teams in joint operations, rapid border interventions, return interventions or any other relevant operational activities in the Member States or in third countries. Such activities shall only be carried out with the authorisation of the Member State or the third country concerned. The actual number of staff deployed from the standing corps shall depend on the operational needs. Deployment of the standing corps shall be complementary to the efforts undertaken by the Member States.

3. When providing support to the Member States, the members of the standing corps deployed as members of the teams shall have the ability to carry out border control or return tasks, including tasks requiring executive powers provided for in the relevant national law or, in the case of statutory staff, the tasks requiring executive powers set out in Article 55(7). The members of the standing corps shall meet the requirements for specialised training and professionalism as provided for in the third subparagraph of Article 16(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/399 or other relevant instruments.

4. On the basis of a proposal from the executive director taking into account the Agency's risk analysis, the results of the vulnerability assessment and the multiannual strategic policy cycle for European integrated border management, and building on the numbers and profiles of staff available to the Agency through its statutory staff and ongoing secondments, by 31 March of each year the management board shall adopt a decision:

(a) defining the profiles of, and setting out the requirements for, operational staff;

(b) on the number of staff per specific profile of categories 1, 2 and 3 staff to form teams in the following year, based on the expected operational needs for the following year;

(c) specifying further the contributions set out in Annexes II and III by setting the specific numbers and profiles of staff per Member State to be seconded to the Agency in accordance with Article 56 and to be nominated in accordance with Article 57 in the following year;

(d) specifying further the contributions set out in Annex IV by setting the specific numbers and profiles of staff per Member State under the reserve for rapid reaction to be provided in the following year in the event of rapid border interventions in accordance with Articles 39 and 58; and (e) setting out an indicative multiannual planning of profiles for the subsequent years to facilitate the long-term planning for the Member States' contributions and the recruitment of statutory staff.

5. The crew for technical equipment provided in accordance with Article 64 shall be taken into account as part of the contributions for short-term deployments provided by the Member States pursuant to Article 57 for the following year. With a view to preparing the relevant management board decision referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article, the Member State concerned shall inform the Agency about its intention to deploy the technical equipment with the corresponding crew by the end of January of each year.

6. For the purpose of Article 73, the Agency shall develop and ensure the command and control structures for the effective deployment of the standing corps on the territory of third countries.

7. The Agency may recruit a sufficient number of statutory staff, which may account for up to 4 % of the total number of the standing corps set out in Annex I, for supportive or monitoring functions for the establishment of the standing corps, for the planning and management of its operations and for the acquisition of the Agency's own equipment.

8. The staff referred to in paragraph 7 and the staff responsible for the functioning of the ETIAS Central Unit shall not be deployed as members of the teams, but shall nevertheless be counted as category 1 staff for the purposes of Annex I.