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This article tackles the issue of legal regulation of the use of force by the European Union based on the example of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), operating in the EU’s area of freedom, security, and justice. Due to the risks and threats related to border protection and migration management, Frontex has been endowed with extensive powers to use force in its operations. Using the concept of institutional isomorphism, the author argues that Frontex’s activities in the face of specific and extremely difficult challenges at the external borders of the EU have become a component of operations undertaken by the border services of the Member States, leading to an isomorphic “merging” of the activities of EU agencies and national border services, including the legal dimension of the use of force.