On June 24, 2008, the conference "What’s Happening on the Borders of the European Union?" was held at the International Renaissance Foundation. A presentation was made of the results of a study on border crossing points situated on the European Union external land borders, which provided a detailed analysis of the quality of services rendered to travelers.
On June 24, 2008, the conference “What’s Happening on the Borders of the European Union?” was held at the International Renaissance Foundation. A presentation was made of the results of a study on border crossing points situated on the European Union external land borders, which provided a detailed analysis of the quality of services rendered to travelers.
In the second half of 2007, the Stefan Batory Foundation, in cooperation with seven institutions from seven EU member states: Bulgaria (European Institute), Estonia (EuroCollege, Tartu University), Finland (Finnish Institute of International Affairs), Hungary (Contemporary Researches Foundation), Poland (Center of Migration Research, Warsaw University), Romania (Desire Foundation) and Slovakia (Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association) monitored border crossings points on the European Union’s borders. 19 border crossing points in these countries on the borders with EU neighbors — Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine – were monitored. The main subject of monitoring was conditions for persons crossing those sections of the border that are under control of EU countries. Monitoring helped assess the quality of the border infrastructures, waiting times at border crossings and length of queues, access to information regarding border crossing, behavior of border and customs services in terms of respect for human rights, professional standards of the personnel and corruption at border crossings.
6 border crossings on the EU-Ukraine border were monitored: Medyka-Shehyni and Zosin-Ustyluh (border with Poland), Vysne Nemecke-Uzhhorod and Velke Slemence-Mali Slementsi (border with Slovakia), Tiszabecs-Vylok (border with Hungary) and Sighetul Marmatiei-Solotvyno (border with Romania).
The main goal of this study was to focus attention on the problems of quality of services rendered to travelers at the EU’s border crossing points, especially since the discussion around borders focuses on security issues. After monitoring the abovementioned aspects, the Stefan Batory Foundation prepared the analytical report “Checkpoints on the EU External Land Border – Monitoring Report.” Taking into consideration the existence of common borders between Ukraine and the EU, Ukraine’s desire to join the European Community and the current trend in organizing joint border control, the results of the study should be very interesting and useful for government bodies whose work deals with border crossing points and representatives of the public, especially NGOs and Ukrainian journalists.
For the English language report, visit: http://www.batory.org.pl/doc/gateways_to_europe.pdf
Contact person: Nataliya Parkhomenko,
Center for Peace, Conversion and Foreign Policy of Ukraine
tel.: +38 (044) 238-68-43, 230-83-76,
Email: parkhomenko@cpcfpu.org.ua
 |
|
|
||||
|
|
|
Khrystyna Basiliya, Public Relations Manager tel: +380 (44) 461 97 09 | fax: +380 (44) 486 76 29 email: basiliya@irf.kiev.ua office: Kyiv, Artema Street, 46, Head Office |
|||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
