The FINANCIAL — The EU has provided equipment to border guards in the Ukraine to help strengthen the joint border with Belarus.
Vehicles and equipment were provided under the EU-funded ‘SURCAP Phase 2’ project to the State Border Guard Service in Ukraine on 22 November. The technical assistance aims to strengthen the capacity of Ukrainian and Belarussian border agencies and increase joint border protection, according to EU Neighbours East Info.
“The modern equipment and vehicles purchased within this project will allow the North Regional Department of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine to ensure availability of mobile units at the Ukraine–Belarus border,” stated Lieutenant-General Vasyl Servatyuk, First Deputy Head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
“We need to secure borders, so that we can efficiently detect and fight smuggling and other illegal border crossings. At the same time we have to make sure that legal crossing for people and goods is as smooth as possible,” stressed Ambassador Hugues Mingarelli, Head of the Delegation of the EU to Ukraine. “The European Union has been a major partner of Ukraine in this endeavour, with contributions to integrated border management exceeding 100 million euro, and today’s handover of equipment takes us one step further to our mutual goal of security, freedom and justice.”
The EU-funded regional project “Strengthening Surveillance and Bilateral Coordination Capacity Along the Common Border Between Belarus and Ukraine” has a total budget of EUR 5.350 million for two countries in equal proportions. Until spring 2017 it is going to increase the effectiveness of the protection of the state border between Ukraine and Belarus through the purchase of equipment, joint study visits to the EU, seminars on various aspects of integrated border management, and the establishment of a pilot contact point “Pinsk-Zhytomyr”.
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