On 02 November 2023, the third project Steering Group meeting of the EU Support in Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine – Resilience (EU4IBM-Resilience) project took place in Kyiv. The meeting was moderated by the ICMPD Head of Region Eastern Europe and Central Asia Radim Žák. Among the guests were the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the State Customs Service of Ukraine, and other partners and stakeholders.
The Steering Group reviewed the project’s progress over the last half year under its four components: border management resilience, trade facilitation, sector management support, and secured operation of legislature.
In the reporting period, the project delivered 500 mobile radio stations to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS), conducted 20+ consultations on anti-corruption, and organised webinars on anti-corruption experience and technical solutions applied in corruption prevention in Lithuania. The project provided the SBGS with the first part of the rehabilitation equipment, particularly fitness accessories and an exoskeleton, along with follow-up training on its application. Additionally, the project reported on a successfully conducted analysis and re-engineering of the asset management working process and 20 related subprocesses of the SBGS.
In terms of cooperation with the State Customs Service, the project supported specialised training of customs canine teams: A total of 80 canine teams have been trained since the start of the action in spring 2023. The procurement of one large-scale mobile cargo scanner has been successfully completed, and its delivery is awaited in spring 2024. Two more scanners are about to be contracted. Moreover, the project is procuring uninterrupted power supplies for the existing stationary cargo scanners to ensure their functioning in case of power cuts due to Russia’s attacks on the power infrastructure in Ukraine. A series of training sessions for scanner operators and analysts has also been launched.
The project further cooperated with the Parliament of Ukraine on the provision of cloud services for the protection and use of parliamentary data and on the procurement of armoured vehicles.
The Steering Group took note of the high assessment of the project’s activities by the beneficiaries and established objectives for future cooperation. The participants were informed about the upcoming budget top-up and extension of the project until mid-2025.