The goal of this project is to elaborate an open architecture for the operation of unmanned air-to-ground wide area land and sea border surveillance platforms in Europe. This architecture is based on analysis of concepts and scenarios for UAV-based aerial surveillance of European borders. It takes into account the emerging legislation for insertion of UAS into controlled civil airspace. The technical aspects cover surveillance sensors, appropriate aerial platforms, secure datalinks, communication networks and generic ground control station. The project particularly focuses on cost-efficient solutions enabling maximum efficiency of the UAS operations for European border surveillance.