ODESA, MARCH 7th, 2013, CONTEXT-PRICHERNOMORIE ― The meeting of the Heads of border offices of Ukraine and Romania has been held in Odesa, Context-Prichernomorie correspondent repots.

The press service of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reported yesterday, 6 March.

According to the press service, the Chairman of the State Border Service of Ukraine Mykola Lytvyn and the General Inspector of Romanian Border Police Ioan Buda met yesterday, March 6, in Odesa. During the event, the heads of border offices analyzed the situation in the Ukrainian-Romanian state border, discussed steps to further cooperation and the status of implementation of previous agreements.

During the meeting, it was stated that the situation at the border is stable and controlled, but at the same time the problem of the illegal migration and smuggling of tobacco products still remains.

Also during the meeting the issues of functioning of checkpoints were discussed. It was noted that last year it was provided the proper permit of citizens and vehicles crossing the border. In addition, during the meeting it was noted that the opening of crossing points for international communication are agreed in the framework of the intergovernmental Agreement signed in August 2012. Previously they had the status of local: “Russkaya ― Ulm”, “Krasnoilsk ― Vicovu de Sus”, “Dyakovtsy ― Rakovets”. The Heads of border offices agreed that the opening of the crossing points for international traffic will significantly increase the overall throughput and to create a more comfortable environment of citizens when crossing the border.

The parties discussed issues of implementation of joint patrols on the Ukrainian-Romanian state border. For the harmonization of the positions on the introduction of joint patrols by the Ukrainian side, it was offered to participate in a working meeting of experts of both sides’ border offices.

“I am confident that the implementation of joint patrols will increase responsiveness to changing circumstances and would contribute to the further improvement of the efficiency of the Ukrainian-Romanian border”, Mr Lytvyn noted.

The Head of the State Border Service of Ukraine thanked his counterpart for the operational cooperation and the timely exchange of information under the Black Sea Cross-Border Cooperation Forum and proposed the exchange of visits of ships of the Maritime Border Guard and Coast Guard to conduct joint bilateral training to share experiences in law enforcement matters. In turn, the Romanian side expressed its willingness to spread experience of new projects, the European system of border protection and border control. In connection with it, the EUROSUR (European external border surveillance system) system was introduced, as well as the opportunity to participate in the project countries neighbouring the EU.

The parties agreed to hold the next meeting in 2014 in Romania.