The final meeting of the CELBET Steering Committee was held in Sopot on February 13. The meeting was attended by representatives of Customs Administrations of all 11 CELBET Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia. Representatives of Frontex and EUBAM participated in an online mode.
The meeting was opened and chaired by Mrs Małgorzata Krok, Deputy Head of National Revenue Administration of Poland, who emphasized the importance of the CELBET expert team in her opening speech:
Since September 2016, CELBET has contributed to better-coordinated management and control actions. CELBET’s goal was to enhance the security and safety of the EU citizens, but also protect the internal market and the EU interests, by working extensively at the external land borders. We shall not forget also that CELBET became, by feasibility study also a part, in certain aspects the precursors of the EUCABET and the future European Union Customs Authority.
Mrs Michele Perolat Director of DG TAXUD, mentioned the very beginning of the CELBET:
When the idea of CELBET came up, I immediately had a vision of what the project could give in the future. At I said to myself: this project can be the seeds for something much bigger, who could beyond the land borders come to the other Member States and come later on to the Customs Agency.
CELBET has shown that in the operational and practical areas it is possible to cooperate effectively. CELBET is the precursor of the Agency and the EUCABET.
Mrs Michele Perolat emphasized Poland’s leading role in the project and expressed gratitude for being the host of 14 excellently prepared meetings of the Steering Committee and for organizing and taking care of CELBET’s headquarters in Warsaw.
One of the main points of the meeting was the presentation of the teams’ results since 2016 – the year of launching the expert team. Andras Bartha head of CELBET and leaders of CELBET teams summarized 9 years of intensive work for operational coordination of customs services responsible for border inspections on the EU land external border strip. The presentations underlined many tangible and practical deliverables which influenced Customs effectiveness and performance on the first line of control. The main examples of pivotal results are:
- Seven Centers of Expertise, Training Platform
- Cooperation with third countries: Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkans,
- Missions
- Equipment specifications, tests and procurement documents
- BCP Diagnostic Studies and 3204 recommendations
- Seizure reports and risk profiles
- Joint CELBET Actions on different areas of control
During the meeting, a representative from each CELBET Member State has signed a commemorative CELBET Friends Book, expressing their high appreciation for all experts as contributors to the operational cooperation, coordination and an effective best practices sharing as well as to “acting as one” approach.
CELBET Center of Expertise on X-ray which is located near Sopot, had its own corner, where many interesting facts, details and solutions have been shared. The Center’s trainer, Wojciech Gesikowski, prepared a competition. The participants’ task was to identify the goods inside the container only on the basis of the X-ray image displayed on a TV screen. The participants were given three suggested answers of which only one was correct. In total, the task consisted of 20 images. The X-ray corner and the contest inspired delegates to raise a discussion on the technical and functional aspects of scanning equipment as well as the possible possibilities of organizing a central collection of X-ray images in the EU.
Officially, the CELBET project will end on 31.05.2025.
The history of CELBET and how the expert team has been launched was shown in the video, especially produced for the fianl Steering Committee meeting.
One of the initiators and former DG of Polish Customs Service Mr. Jacek Kapica, as well as former heads of CELBET: Mr Egon Veermae, Mr Urmas Koidu and Mr Jyrki Linna shared their memories and reflections on establishing CELBET.
