On October 10, 2017 at the Administration of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine the Fourth Steering Committee Meeting of the Twinning Project “Support to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in further development IBM approaches for travel document verification and stolen motor vehicles detection” took place.

The Project is implemented by the Administration of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in joint cooperation with the German Federal Police, State Border Guard Service at the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania and Polish Border Guard.

The Project aims at strengthening capacity of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in combating illegal migration and countering corruption that will contribute to effective implementation of the Integrated Border Management System according to the best standards, models and practices of the European Union.

First Deputy Head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Vasyl Servatiuk presented the main results of the Project implementation and admitted that the main achievement of the joint work is establishment of a visa-free regime between the EU and Ukraine. In addition, it was also noted that to reach consensus on the creation of a high-level interdepartmental working group on coordinating integrated border management as a consultative and advisory body to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is equally important for overall performance.

This result was preceded by considerable work on the study of international practices, in particular Finland, Germany, Poland and Lithuania, as well as the procedure for discussing representatives of the main subjects of the integrated border management and representatives of the EU delegations in Ukraine and the EU missions EUAM and EUBAM.

Head of Operations Section 1 “Good Governance and Democratisation” of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Martin Klaucke underlined the strategic significance of the project and expressed the hope that the effective implementation of the project would positively influence the acceleration of the process of integration of the State Border Service into a European law-enforcement field and increase its ability to counter current threats at the state border.

MS Project Leader Thomas Osterroth in his turn outlined main activities that were held during the reporting period. At the same time, it was pointed out that Component 1 – Assistance in monitoring and evaluation of the new IBM Strategy and Action Plan implementation is a basis for further implementing the best European practice and implementation of other components depends on this one.

Practical results of the project were presented, financial report, recommendations on implementation and improvement of the activities of border department and integrated border management in general were discussed during the meeting.

In addition, RTA Daniel Farrell thanked to the project partners for the harmonious and coordinated cooperation as well as identified plans for the next reporting period.

EU Member States experts for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, representatives of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine also took part in the event.

On behalf of the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union the meeting was attended by the Deputy Head of the Projects Management Unit Inna Bielobratova.

For reference:

according to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On Approval of the Procedure for Initiation, Preparation and Implementation of the Twinning projects” as of October 11, 2016 No 700 the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service coordinates the implementation of Institution Building Instrument Twinning in Ukraine.

In addition, according to the relevant regulatory acts the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service is the national coordinator of institutional building instrument TAIEX implementation in Ukraine.

In order to provide effective coordination of Twinning and TAIEX instruments the Twinning Programme Administration office in Ukraine was created, its functions are executed by the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to Standards of the European Union.

The Project “Support to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in further development IBM approaches for travel document verification and stolen motor vehicles detection” consists of the following three components:

• Component 1 – Assistance in monitoring and evaluation of the new IBM Strategy and Action Plan implementation;
• Component 2 – Improvement of the border checks systems including IT solution in line with the EU models and best practices;
• Component 3 – Approximation of the national legislation and practice in the field of stolen motor vehicles detecting to the standards of the EU Acquis.