Interdepartmental Working Group meeting on Coordination of Integrated Border Management was held at the Border Crossing Point “Novi Yarylovychi” on the border with Belarus in the Chernihiv oblast.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba, First Deputy Head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Volodymyr Nikiforenko, Chief of Chernihiv Border Guard Detachment Oleksandr Chornyi, First Deputy Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viacheslav Shamko, First Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine - Chief of Criminal Police Yevhen Koval and other representatives of ministries and agencies. Representatives of the EUAM Advisory Mission, the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and the European Frontier and Coast Guard Agency FRONTEX also attended the meeting.

New methods of advanced procedures of border and customs clearance were presented in "Novi Yarylovychi". They include automatic exchange of information between border guards and customs officers, use of tablets, scanners, drones, video recording of car numbers and so on.

“Earlier citizens had to go through two separate checks while crossing the border: the border guard and the customs officer. Innovation provides the principle of a “single window”. Border guard and customs databases are combined. It is convenient, fast, comfortable”, - said Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba.

The participants of the meeting discussed ways to improve the work of border crossing points (BCP), the issues of counteracting offenses at the state border using small aircraft, problematic aspects and ways of solving them.

An experiment to improve the technological procedures of border and customs clearance in Novi Yarylovychi is being carried out in order to introduce modern control technologies, to acquire best practices and experience of the countries of the European Community. The essence of the experiment lies in the comfortable and quick passage of border and customs control by citizens without leaving the vehicles by drivers and passengers.

For example, before launching the experiment, the vehicles at the BCP were run in a dense, continuous flow, from the entry barrier to the passport control line. At the same time at the BCP there were up to 20 vehicles on each lane.

“The special feature of this BCP is the implementation of a pilot project in order to optimize control procedures to create comfortable conditions for travellers. This project has already proven effective and the SBGSU is planning to extend it to other BCPs. In total, there are 230 border crossing points operating at the state border. 100 of them are automobile BCPs, ”said Volodymyr Nikiforenko, First Deputy Head of the State Border Guard Service.

“The main goal of the technology has been achieved,” continued Volodymyr Nikiforenko. “We managed to facilitate the border and customs control procedure and create comfortable border crossing conditions for travellers. Due to the automatic exchange of information between border guards and customs officers, many BCPs have changed the order of departure control from Ukraine (first border guards, then customs). This speeded up the clearance process, especially in bus routes. There is no need to double-enter the database for each bus passenger."

According to Dmytro Kuleba, this BCP demonstrates how border management should be integrated: "Modern border and customs control technologies embody the best practices and experience of European Union countries."

Also, Chief of Staff - First Deputy Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viacheslav Shamko informed about the ability of the Air Force to counteract the violation of the state border regime using small aircraft.

In addition, during the event border guards presented unmanned aerial vehicles of the Agency.

It should be noted that these complexes are used by specialists who have had appropriate training and are allowed to operate them. Airborne intelligence units use unmanned aerial complexes of airplane and multicopter type.

The Deputy Prime Minister thanked the border guards for organizing the meeting at Novi Yarylovychi, the BCP that demonstrates how border management should be integrated. Dmytro Kuleba reminded that integrated border management is an important component of our country's European integration. The Deputy Prime Minister noted that part of the state border with the aggressor state would have a separate attitude and a special regime of control.

As a result of the discussion, the Interagency Working Group approved an action plan for implementation of the Integrated Border Management 2020 strategy.