On April, 4-5^th the conference on questions of holding the Final part of European football Championship in Poland and Ukraine took place in Kyiv. The conference was organized by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in cooperation with the European Union of Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM). In the discussion of safety issues there also took part the representatives of the central executive bodies of Ukraine, border guard and customs services of the neighboring countries of Ukraine and European Union, European agencies of FRONTEX, representations of the European Commission and diplomatic representations of foreign countries. 

During the conference the experts discussed safety issues, facilitators of border guard and customs procedures, shared the experience with the representatives of the countries having already held European and world football championships, considered problems that might happen on the border and the achievements in preparation of Ukraine and Poland for the football championship of 2012

The head of the Mission of EU EUBAM Udo Burkholder: “European football championship is a very important task for our services. It’s a unique challenge and a unique opportunity. It’s a pleasure that the representatives of partner agencies of EU member states with the experience of organization of such events also participate in the conference. Their presence helps us strengthen international cooperation as well as make the exchange of best practices in EU.

In general the State Border Guard Service has completed practical preparation stage to European football championship.” We formed the regulatory framework, the technology of crossing operations and agreed it with partner agencies. In February, these issues were discussed at the expanded meeting of the board of border guard department. We planned practical actions for personnel training and technical means to control the activities using new technology monitoring crossing operations,”- said Chief of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Mykola Lytvyn.

Basing on a comprehensive analysis of: the participants of the final part, the draw, the infrastructure of border crossing points with the Border Guard department together with the State Customs service have defined 32 main BCPs to perform the admission of the football championship participants and guests. There are 16 highway, 11 railway and 5 airway border crossing points. By the results of calculations of the total increase of passenger and traffic flow is expected to be 40%. For example, in the air BCPs it is expected the largest number of visitors: in the airport “Boryspil” – up to 6 thousand persons per hour, in “Lviv” – to 2,5 thousand.

For high-qualitative admisson of visitors a better model of crossing the state border has already been tested. Thus, on airway direction the registration of passengers will be performed on board, near the stairs, in euro corridors. The previous cheking of passengers in the airports of departure, timely provision of passenger lists to airlines, delimitation of regular flights passenger flows and fans will be used.

On highway directions there will be used: the principle of one stop and registration of passengers without leaving their vehicle; the admission of official delegations and organized groups on separate euro corridors; delimitation of automobile flows of participants and guests of “Euro-2012” with other visitors of the country; performing general control on Ukrainian-Polish border on the territory of Poland as well as on the Russian sector – on the territory of both Ukraine and Russia.

On railways the basic principle will be registration of passengers during the movement of trains, wheel-pair replacement or during the transfer of passengers and also on starting and final stations.

Now border guards have their language training on the basis of departmental educational centres, Kyiv National linguistic university with experts from the USA, EU EUBAM Mission, MOM and educational centres of Turkey. Till June, 1 all the personnel involved in crossing operations will have corresponding level of communication. Also the personnel will get new uniforms developed by considering modern trends of professional design and law enforcement activity of the border guard department.