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Lithuania aims to share with its Eastern neighbours the accumulated experience in the spheres of the implementation of the European Union’s standards for state border management, fight against smuggling and customs corruption.Lithuania has submitted a specific proposal regarding the modernization of customs services in Ukraine and Belarus. Besides, officials from the Customs Department intend to actively participate in the training projects of the EU Eastern Partnership’s Flagship Initiative Integrated Border Management (IBM).

These plans were discussed during the ongoing working group meeting of the EU Eastern Partnership’s IBM Flagship Initiative at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 31 March.

According to Ambassador-at-Large of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry Ina Marčiulionytė, who opened the event, Lithuanian institutions are actively involved in the Eastern Partnership activities and aim to share the EU accession and reform experience with partner countries.

According to I.Marčiulionytė, the training that is organized by Lithuanian customs officers will help strengthen the capacity of the Eastern Partnership’s customs authorities to fight against alcohol and tobacco smuggling, to preventing corruption, to develop customs risk analysis systems and to guarantee intellectual property protection.

During the event at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IBM strategies and the implementation of action plans in partner countries are presented, the training programme is discussed, the officials of the European Commission are providing the newest information about the implementation process of pilot projects.

This is the fourth meeting of the IBM working group, but is the first one taking place in an EU member state. “This testifies to the fact that active and purposeful Lithuania’s efforts in implementing the Eastern Partnership programme and aiming at the EU’s political and economic goals are recognized and valued by the European Commission,” I. Marčiulionytė said.

The meeting is attended by representatives from the European Commission, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the EU Member States FRONTEX, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International Organization for Migration, other European and international organizations, officials from the EU members states and countries participating in the EU’s Eastern Partnership programme (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), competent border and customs officers.

EU Eastern Partnership’s IBM Flagship Initiative aims to help the EU’s Eastern Partnership countries develop and install effectively, smoothly and transparently functioning coordinated border management systems that meet the EU requirements. This would facilitate the cross-border movement of goods and citizens.

The initiative includes an extensive programme for training, seminars, administrative capacity-building and for sharing the best practices with partner countries, and foresees the implementation of specific pilot projects in those countries.

On 1 April, participants of the meeting are visiting the Vilnius territorial customs office on the Lithuanian-Belarusian state border in Šalčininkai.