A Frontex delegation led by the Agency’s Executive Director Hans Leijtens was on a working visit to Romania November 25 and 26, with the agenda including meetings at the Ministry of the Interior and the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Border Police (IGPF). The Frontex officials, accompanied by a delegation of the Romanian Border Police led by the Inspector General, Police Quaestor Cornel-Laurian Stoica, visited the Giurgiu-Ruse Border Crossing Point. The activities carried out by the border police, the hardware and capabilities they use to monitor and secure the state border in the joint missions were presented on this occasion, as well as the good cooperation with the Bulgarian side, with an emphasis on joint control. The compensatory measures the two states are to implement after they join the Schengen Area with their land borders were also discussed, the IGPF said in a release on Wednesday.
The Frontex representatives reiterated the Agency’s support for Romania’s full Schengen accession, committing to further support the achievement of this goal with human and logistics resources.
The Frontex delegation also met with Minister of the Interior Catalin Predoiu, and with Secretaries of State Police General Quaestor Bogdan Despescu and Chief Police Quaestor Mihai Catalin Necula.
„Success in the Schengen file presupposes not only political-diplomatic actions, but also an entire range of technical operations that we develop through the Border Police. Cooperation with Frontex and the border police of Bulgaria and Hungary, Austria and Serbia is also important. Schengen involves an enormous amount of work in the field, and our colleagues from the Interior Ministry, the Border Police and the Romanian Police do an excellent job on that,” declared Catalin Predoiu.
The sides also exchanged views on topics of common interest related to the management of the EU’s external borders, with the participants emphasizing the solid cooperative relationship between Romania, through the Ministry of the Interior, and Frontex, with Romania being a significant contributor to the operational capacity of the Agency, both with personnel and equipment.
„Currently, 16.6% (423 out of 2,549) of the Agency’s own personnel are Romanian, a statistical fact that highlights the significant effort our country is making to effectively support the Agency’s activity,” the cited source shows.
On the last day of the visit, the Frontex representatives were at the IGPF headquarters, where they visited the Operational Coordination Center – an essential organizational component within the institution for integrated border management, where they were briefed on the capabilities available to the Romanian Border Police for ensuring top-standard surveillance and control of the external borders of the European Union.
The officials also visited the headquarters of the European Travel Information and Authorization System National Unit, a structure of the IGPF that hosts the activity of the Contingent 1 command team, which ensures the coordination of Frontex resource deployments to the operational areas of Romania, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia.
„During the meeting, the Romanian side expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to host the headquarters of Frontex Contingent 1 and reaffirmed their availability to develop it by adding new functionalities, especially on the logistical component, given Romania’s geographical location, thus facilitating the monitoring and coordination of operations in a key region, and amplifying Romania’s active role in the implementation of European policies,” specifies the IGPF.
Romania also reaffirmed its readiness to host Frontex training programs, offering an optimal setting in terms of infrastructure and trainers.
The Frontex representatives expressed their opinion that Romania is among the top European states implementing such projects and reiterated the Agency’s support for Romania’s full Schengen entry, committing to further support the accomplishment of this goal with human and logistical resources.
