Ukraine is open for a dialogue and close cooperation with the EU Delegation to Ukraine and the EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM), Head of the State Border Guard Service Mykola Lytvyn has said.
“We will keep being open to a dialogue and close cooperation, there are no closed topics for us, and we are ready to seek new forms and ways of cooperation,” the press service of the State Border guard Service cited Lytvyn as saying on Friday.
He said this during a working meeting with Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Jan Tombinski and EUBAM Head Udo Burkholder in Odesa.
The participants of the meeting discussed the current state and cooperation prospects of the Ukrainian Border Guard Service with the EU Delegation and EUBAM in the near future.
Tombinski thanked the Ukrainian authorities for their assistance to EUBAM during the implementation of its mission to support stability on the Ukraine-Moldova border. In turn, Burkholder said there is mutual understanding of the way in which the border should be managed and how cooperation is to be established between the EU Delegation and Ukraine’s Border Guard Service.
During the meeting, Lytvyn noted that the Border Guard Service was gradually improving the level of border security and streamlining its work with the main standards following the adoption in 2006 of the Development Concept and the State Targeted Program for the Equipment and Reconstruction of the State Border until 2015. In particular, the legal field for activities of the service has been approved in recent years, and in 2008 the services passed from military to law enforcement activities, creating a modern integrated border guard system, introducing innovative approaches to risk management and criminal analysis, and gradually improving the border control system.
Lytvyn also said that international cooperation is being developed in bilateral and multilateral formats. In particular, thanks to close cooperation, the countries’ border guard services can quickly respond to changes of the situation on the border and prevent conflicts and incidents.
Ukraine and the EU Delegation have implemented 17 technical assistance programs worth EUR 41.8 million since 2005. EUBAM created departments for international cooperation at regional agencies and border guard detachments to coordinate its work. In addition, the mission created a number of working groups for the prevention of illegal migration and smuggling, the improvement of information exchange, on the activities of joint checkpoints and mobile detachments, and the introduction of joint border patrols.
The press service of the Border Guard Service also said that Ukraine and Moldova carried out an experiment to improve work at the Rososhany-Briceni checkpoint on the Ukraine-Moldova border, and a relevant draft intergovernmental agreement is being developed.
The Border Guard Service also received important assistance for development of a risk analysis system and the training of analysts, the development of draft laws, particularly on the law of Ukraine on border control, and a concept of integrated border management, along with an action plan for its implementation. The mission also helped Ukraine to prepare for and host the Euro 2012 European Football Championship. In addition, the service actively implements anti-corruption initiatives.
Tombinski thanked Lytvyn for his invitation to visit various sectors of the Ukrainian border.
