From 23 to 27 November 2020, European Union experts jointly with the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) and the State Customs Service (SCS) of Ukraine completed the second field assessment mission to the border crossing points (BCPs) at Ukrainian-Belarusian and Ukrainian-Moldovan borders. The mission is the second activity on the spot to analyse the control processes and procedures at BCPs and is a part of wider activities of the EU-funded project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)”.

The assessment covered automobile (Novi Yarylovychi), air (Boryspil), railway (Kuchurgan) as well as maritime BCPs (Pivdennyi Seaport and Odesa Sea Trade Port) and became another step towards advancement of both border and customs processes and procedures at the border crossing points.

“The best way to see how the processes are implemented, apart from doing the assessment here in Kyiv, is to visit the spots and simulate the crossing of the border for both goods and persons. Step-by-step passage with recording of the waiting time could help identify the gaps and build up a new optimised process contributing to improvement of the control procedures at BCPs, making checks more efficient, fast and safe”, said Arunas Adomenas, EU4IBM Team Leader.

During the field visits, a team consisting of experts from EU Member States, SBGS and SCS carried out an in-depth analysis of border and customs control procedures starting from the entry to the customs territory of Ukraine until the exit from the BCP. The assessment looked into the formalities of processing of passengers and cargo in BCPs for road, rail, sea and air transport modes, as well as current situation at the border crossing points. The main idea behind the action is to identify the gaps, develop recommendations and propose model solutions allowing to reduce time and resources for the processes at BCPs while ensuring fast and safe passage of goods and persons through the border.

In the coming months, based on the mission findings and data collected, the project experts will work on detailed recommendations and action plans for their implementation in parallel with the development of concepts of model BCP solutions.

“Open, yet well managed, controlled and secure borders of Ukraine are among the objectives of the Ukrainian IBM Strategy. The EU, being Ukraine’s long lasting partner, shares this objective and provides continuous and all-round support in this regard”, said Xavier Camus, Head of Section “Good Governance and Democratisation” at the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine.

Once the concepts are in place and endorsed by the SBGS and SCS, EU4IBM will support their implementation to enable border management agencies to offer better service delivery to people, promote regional cooperation, cross-border trade, development and human contact, allow both citizens and companies to benefit from increased mobility and integration into the world economic flows, and ensure a high level of security and prevention of cross-border crime.