During the working meeting held on 12-13 July at EUBAM HQ in Odessa the representatives of border and customs agencies of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, under the Mission’s guidance, took further significant steps to develop joint border control.
Such practical issues as which border crossing points should be selected for the joint control, what criteria for selection should be used and on which side of the border the checking procedures should be conducted were in the focus of the discussion. National partners perceived with significant interest the methodology for prioritizing the border crossing points proposed by EUBAM.

The representatives of Road Administrations from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, which joined the meeting for the first time, briefed the participants on the plans of reconstruction of roads adjacent to the border crossing points and agreed to coordinate relevant plans with the border agencies in the future.

The next steps agreed by the parties are assessment visits to important border crossing points at Moldova-Ukraine border to take place over the next two months.

EU Integrated Border Management concept regards the joint control as the best practice of harmonisation and simplification of border crossing procedures. The principle of joint control allows reducing the number of stops incurred in crossing of the border by combining the control of both countries’ border agencies at a single common location.