Members of BCP Network from all CELBET Members States have met on14 -15 of December in Warsaw.
Meeting was opened by Head of CELBET Mr Jyrki Linna, who presented general overview of CELBET deliverables and highlighted practical side of activities. – It is learning from doing- said Linna.
During the two days meeting, customs officers of border crossing points from all CELBET Member States, were discussing main topics that reflect feedback on mission, future needs and current situation on the EU external border.
– For example, check list for control of loaded and empty trucks is very up to date and really useful. We use maximum what you produce – summed up Ants Kutti from Estonian customs service.
Representative of Polish Customs & Tax Control Service, Jacek Jaworek presented results and further development of Missions and also steps taken in terms of the cooperation with Ukraine. Peychin Ivanov from Bulgaria presented biggest cases of the most popular smuggling seizures: IPR , undeclared money, marihuana, hemps. Thomas Raptis from Greek Customs informed about fuel smuggling and IPR cases.
Finnish Customs representative, Petri Kukkonen presented current COVID situation in Finland and movement restrictions on the BCP with Russia. He also informed about new X-ray machine in Vaalimaa BCP and update of x-ray for trains on railway BCP in Vaimikkala.Data from Estonian border strip was presented by Ants Kutti, who informed that medicine is one of the most popular product that passengers try to smuggle is medicine. In 2021 Estonian customs officers seized 108 kg of drugs.
Marian Toth, from Slovakia, shared information on COVID situation on Slovakian border strip and process of developing Smart Border system.
Latvian represenative, Guntars Kokins, gave an overview of the current situation on the Lavian border strip and presented examples of the biggest seziures on Latvian-Russian border: 11 156 320 pieces of ciagretes in metal doors, 9 048 800 pieces of cigarettes in cement.
Audrone Kiersene from Lithuania explained the Plate Recognition System and increasing cases of smuggking by truck drivers.
All agreed that the biggest problem and challenge in customs admnistrations of all CELBET MS are pandemic threats and lack of human resources.
