Kubekhaza-Rabe, 28 October 2021 – The delegation of the Ukrainian border guards and customs officers visited a border crossing point at the Hungarian-Serbian border to study the experience of joint controls carried out by two countries’ border agencies. The visit was supported by the EU4IBM project implemented by ICMPD as part of its work on facilitating the setup of joint BCPs at the Ukrainian border with EU member states.

The participants observed the infrastructure of the joint Hungarian-Serbian BCP, the practical modalities of joint controls performed, and the peculiarities of the application of the relevant bilateral Agreement primarily concerning the use of “territorial principle”. In addition, the representatives of the Ukrainian delegation used this opportunity to continue discussing the draft bilateral agreement between Hungary and Ukraine on setting up a joint BCP with their Hungarian counterparts.

Within the framework of the visit, the Hungarian border guards shared their experience in organization of joint control, process of admission of certain categories of persons and vehicles as well as the procedure for making individual decisions in case of non-standard situations.

As a result of the visit to BCP and subsequent discussions, both sides expressed readiness to intensify efforts in harmonizing the draft agreement and preliminary agreed by end of this year to conduct another round of bilateral consultations taking into account the specifics of the implementation of control procedures at BCP on the Hungarian-Serbian border. This will be preceded by the end November trilateral Ukraine-Slovak Republic-European Commission expert consultations, inter alia, on the Hungarian-Serbian joint BCP experience and the applicability of the “territorial principle” observed there.

Background information: The project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)” is funded by the EU, carried out by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and supports the implementation of the reforms approximating the Ukrainian border management system to the EU standards and best practices in line with the Integrated Border Management Strategy of Ukraine adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers on 24 July 2019. The project runs from December 2019 until June 2022.