Ukrainian border guards are intensifying cooperation with their neighboring Western counterparts to help our state sooner achieve its foreign policy goal of joining the European Union. Last Wednesday Kyiv hosted a meeting of border security chiefs from Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and Romania.
The main issues raised during the talks focused on how to bring the work of Ukrainian border guards closer to EU standards. What does this mean in practice? At the very least this means better control over migration flows (more effective isolation of “undesirable elements”) and a simplified border-crossing procedure for law-abiding individuals, etc. At most, one can expect a relaxed visa regime for Ukrainian citizens visiting EU countries (in the longer term, abolition of all visa barriers, naturally, if our state really approaches European standards). It would be wrong to say that this kind of work was not being carried out earlier. Yet, what is obvious today is that Ukrainian border guards have taken a more serious attitude toward their share of efforts to advance Ukraine’s integration into Europe.
As of today, the Ukraine-EU common border is 777 km long. In two years, after Romania joins the European Union, this border will lengthen by two times to 1,400 kilometers. To prevent it from becoming a wall, a bugbear that some politicians are wielding, perhaps not unjustifiably, the Ukrainian government must make as many favorable decisions as possible in its cooperation with its Western partners. This should be done on a multilateral basis because the problem of visa liberalization will be tackled by and large in Brussels offices, as well as on a bilateral basis, since European bureaucrats usually pass resolutions on the advice of concrete EU member states. “We are moving step by step toward European standards as far as effective border management is concerned,” Mykola Lytvyn, chief of the State Border Security Agency of Ukraine, noted last Wednesday, “and Ukraine is paying special attention to the northern and eastern sectors of the border.” Most illegal migrants arrive in Ukraine from Russia. Encountering strict controls on the western border, they “settle” on the territory of Ukraine. Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Oleh Shamshur in turn directed the attention of the neighboring western states’ border security chiefs to Kyiv’s desire to ease the visa regime with EU countries. In his view, intensified cross-border cooperation could lay the groundwork for the EU being more open to Ukrainians, which could in turn allow Ukraine to redouble its Euro-integration efforts.
What is the attitude of our western neighbors? So far, it is optimistic. Speaking to The Day’s correspondent, Inspector-General of the Romanian Border Security Police Nelu Pop pointed out the extremely friendly relations between Ukrainian and Romanian border guards. It should be noted that this atmosphere of partnership existed between the border guards even when things were not so rosy: suffice it to recall last year’s border scandals over Ukraine resuming navigation in the Danube delta, a conflict that was settled above all thanks to successful talks between the two countries’ border security chiefs. Mr. Pop also noted that political disputes will in no way have an impact on border security, all the more so as political tension in bilateral relations is gradually declining.
So far, all signs point to the fact that “Euro-repairs” on the border will bring positive results. But everything will depend on whether the leadership has enough enthusiasm for Euro-integration.
