Customs Eastern Land Border Expert Team (CELBET) Ants Kutti, Deputy Head Customs Organisation Department 08 December 2015

Key issues of EU Eastern land border management   Lack of harmonization – e.g. customs border control and risk management Need for changes in current paradigm where every MS acts on its own way Need for more uniform approach

Briefly Countries participating in the Expert Team: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece. Objectives are divided into 6 Activity blocks: risk management, operational controls, equipment, training, cooperation and evaluation. Result: ensure high quality and agreed level of the controls at the Eastern land border.

Main objectives of EU Eastern land border Expert Team Creation of border control standards Establish common performance indicators for BCPs Systematic on-site evaluation Recommendations for improvement of control equipment and working methods

Risk management (risk-based selection for controls/facilitation) Agree on Eastern and South-Eastern land border specific risk criteria (e.g. hiding places of trucks) Collecting data, analysing and assessing risk (based on common methodology), regularly monitoring Planning joint control activities for Eastern and South-Eastern land border Evaluate possibilities to enhance coordination with FRONTEX

Operational controls Agree and implement the recommended control practice at all BCPs Agree upon the used control types and minimum requirements for operational controls (for what purpose etc.) Agree upon the principles and intensity of the use of X-ray equipment Comparing IT-systems available in Eastern and South-Eastern land border BCPs

Evaluation / performance measurement Set-up of a mechanism for border control performance measurement with KPIs (e.g. define KPIs to evaluate the level of smuggling) Establish common criteria for evaluation of efficiency to take management decisions in MSs (e.g. for duration of border crossing)

Equipment and procurement Carry out analysis on the specific technical needs of each BCP and produce the procurement schedule, incl. funding Drafting recommendations for coordinated procurements Analyse if ANPRS and BAXE (Baltic States X-ray Exchange) could be used in all Eastern land border BCPs

Cooperation Analyse ways to enhance exchange of information between customs and BG for managing risk and combating fraud Enhance co-operation with Border Guards based on best practices (e.g. Nuijamaa model for large border crossing points)

Training Proposals for the implementation of the EU competency framework for customs land border control Analysing possibilities for common training: sharing training needs assessments, annual training plans, assess existing training programmes for BCPs` officials

CELBET structure, management, reporting Head of CELBET 6 Team Leaders 4 x 6 Experts Steering Committee Plenary meetings CPG, CCWP, CUWP, Customs Programme groups (LFCG, CUP)

Thank you!