On 16-17 April 2019, in the premises of EUBAM HQ, the Mission organized a workshop on Common Contact Points (CCPs) for the officers from Moldovan Border Police and Ukrainian State Border Guard Service. The two-day event aimed at supporting Moldovan and Ukrainian authorities in establishing a CCP at Palanca Border Crossing Point, located in the Republic of Moldova. The CCP will ensure timely information exchange between border management authorities about persons and vehicles crossing the border, alerts lists, specificities of local traffic, circumstances that could impact or affect the situation at the border as well as any other information that can assist in assessing the conditions at the frontier.
Against this background, EUBAM invited two Polish Border Guard experts on CCPs to share their knowledge and experience at EU external and internal borders.The experts have tacked different topics of interest, such as: legal framework, scope and source of information exchange, data protection, tasks, staffing, logistics coordination and day-to-day management of the CCP.
The participants from both countries had the opportunity to exchange their views and expectations within small working groups, moderated by the Polish and EUBAM experts, who were also introducing the European standards and best practices.
Therefore, the hands-on workshop offered the participants a great opportunity to get expert advice on CCPs, increase their knowledge and competence in that area and to identify what actions are needed for operationalization of the CCP at Palanca Border Crossing Point.
Background information: Establishing a Common Contact Point (CCP) at Palanca BCP, located on the territory of the Republic of Moldova is one of the four components of the EU-funded project “Enhancing Integrated Border Management along the Ukraine-Moldova Border”, implemented with EUBAM’s support. This specific objective was identified by the European Commission as a priority to be addressed under this project, within the framework of the operationalization of bilateral Agreements and Protocols on border management in force between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.
