| 22 June 2007 On 22 June, at its 6th quarterly meeting in Odesa, the Advisory Board of the EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine heard reports about recent progress achieved by the Mission in its cooperation with its counterparts and considered the future work of the Mission. General Banfi reported to the Board on progress relating to the expected results. Capacity-building in the Moldovan and Ukrainian border services continues to make progress, and has been enhanced by on-going structural and management reforms of those services. The Mission continued to observe the implementation of the Joint Declaration. Assistance with capacity building has continued, several training events and study tours to European countries have been held, and provision of technical assistance is ongoing. Cooperation between EUBAM and its counterparts is running well at all levels.
The Advisory Board reviewed the Mission’s activity from March to May 2007 and welcomed the progress made in fulfilling the Mission’s mandate. The Board discussed the Analysis and Overview of Security on the Ukrainian -Moldovan State Border for the first quarter of 2007, and the evaluation report of the 3rd Joint Border Control Operation, which took place in April. The Advisory Board approved the Missions’ Concept for the next phase, now that its mandate has been extended until November 2009. and welcomed the contribution this would make to systematising the capacity-building work carried out by the Mission. The Board was up-dated on the implementation of the EC-financed BOMMOLUK project which is being coordinated by the Mission. Various training projects and courses have been conducted and others are in progress or planned. Study tours for Moldovan and Ukrainian officials in the Bommoluk 1 project have taken place to Greece, Croatia, Austria, and Macedonia took place in April and May 2007, looking at the work of joint BCPs. Another series has begun, looking at the use of risk analysis in border management, for which a study visit recently went to Turkey.
The Board heard about the Mission’s growing cooperation with the Ministries of the Interior and Justice, the Security Services, and the Prosecutors Offices. The 3rd Joint Border Control Operation involved a total of ten Ukrainian and Moldovan law enforcement agencies and border services, as well as direct contact with corresponding services of the European Union, such as OLAF and FRONTEX, and in neighbouring EU states.
The Mission continues to monitor the registration of companies based in the Transnistrian region of Moldova and the associated reimbursement process to these companies. Over 300 such companies in that region have been registered, and since March, temporarily registered companies have been granted the same access to preferential trade regimes as those registered on a permanent basis.
Ambassador Ian Boag, Head of the EC Delegation to Ukraine and Belarus chaired the meeting. He said that the Board welcomed the extension of the Mission for a further 24 months from November 2007, and added: “The Board welcomed the continuing implementation of the Joint Declaration on the customs regime between Moldova and Ukraine, and the opportunities presented by the extension of access to preferential trade regimes.”
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