On 15-17 May, EUBAM hosted the delegations of the Ministry of Finance of Poland and the Customs Service of the Republic of Moldova to discuss the phenomenon of cigarette smuggling in the region. Smuggled cigarettes have different destinations, presenting high risk for the European Union Member States.

The visitors from Poland, accompanied by the Mission’s members together with border guard and customs agencies’ experts from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, had also the opportunity to visit the recently launched jointly operated border crossing point ‘Palanca-Maiaki-Udobnoe’, as well the Container Terminal Odesa – CTO and ‘Euroterminal’, located in Odesa Sea Port. During those visits, the European Union, Moldovan and Ukrainian experts shared experience about the scale of the cigarettes smuggling phenomenon and the latest modus operandi.