More border control personnel needed on eastern border

The Council of the European Union on April 15 adopted its development recommendations for Finland’s external border control, said a press release of Finnish Border Guard.

The Commission’s team of evaluators familiarised themselves with Finland’s integrated border management system and procedures at both land and sea borders, and also with airport border checks all around the country, from Helsinki to Turku and from Lapland to South-East Finland. The evaluation visits were conducted in June 2018.

According to the evaluation report, there were some deficiencies. Both border surveillance technology and the number of personnel controlling land borders were found to be insufficient.

Finland must ensure that all border crossing points and Border Guard stations have a sufficient number of trained personnel to carry out border surveillance and border checks under all circumstances. Finland must also ensure that there are sufficient personnel to meet the new EU obligations.

Finland’s integrated border management concept, however, was found to be of an extremely high standard. Particular praise was given to Finland’s National Integrated Border Management Strategy (IBM strategy), which is the only national strategy that fully meets the EU’s criteria. The national IT systems that support border checks and border surveillance were also singled out as something that other Member States could learn from.

Finland’s PTR cooperation (that is, cooperation between the Police, Customs and the Border Guard) was also found to be of an extremely high standard. Likewise, Finland’s participation in joint European border management coordinated by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) was found to be praiseworthy.

Finland must now draw up an action plan by 15 July, detailing how the country will implement the European Council’s recommendations concerning external border control.

The action plan will be sent to the European Commission and Council for evaluation. In Finland, both drawing up the action plan and implementing corrective measures is the responsibility of the Finnish Border Guard in cooperation with other authorities.