European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex and Republic of Moldova sign new cooperation plan

Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri and Fredolin Lecari, Head of the General Inspectorate of Border Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova, signed a cooperation plan for the period from 2018 to 2020. The cooperation, which builds on a working arrangement signed in 2008, paves the way for improved exchange of information on migratory flows, the use of relevant data to combat cross border crime and initiatives to support technical assistance to the Moldovan authorities.

The plan also provides the possibility for Frontex to set up training programmes for Moldovan border guards on subjects that include return operations, detection of false documents and the fight against human trafficking. Frontex will continue to cooperate with the Moldovan authorities in operational activities, namely by including Moldovan observers in Frontex Joint Operations.  

P.S.

In August 2008 the Border Guard Service of the Republic of Moldova and Frontex Agency concluded a Working Arrangement which launched official cooperation between the institutions.

In March 2009 the Cooperation Plan between Border Guard Service (current Border Police) and Frontex was signed, providing a set of measures oriented towards capacity building of the Moldovan border agency. Border Police officers were enabled to perform data exchange, and had the opportunity to participate in several pilot projects and operational measures conducted by Frontex, and also in different trainings on risk analysis, detection of forged travel documents, detection of stolen cars, EU relevant standards, dog-handling, etc.

Within annual bilateral talks with Frontex held at the end of 2009, future cooperation priorities were identified to ensure establishment of a long-lasting partnership. Moldovan Border Police and Frontex Agency have joint a Cooperation Plans for 2012-2014 and 2015-2017 which provides cooperation basing on 5 pillars:

Exchange of information/relevant situational products/alerts

Intelligence and risk analysis

Joint projects and operations

Professional training

Research and development

By Order No. 141 of the Head of the Border Police Department, the National Frontex Point of Contact (NFPOC) was set up within BPD being responsible for coordinating and implementing the Cooperation Plan concluded with Frontex.  

BP officers participated in several joint operations with Frontex, including in Moldovan Frontex Coordination Points. It is to be mentioned that Moldova is the only third country which established 2 Coordination Points. At the same time, over 120 BP officers were trained on risk analysis, documents’ expertise, and joint operations organization under the aegis of Frontex.

Border Police and Frontex are continuously cooperating on development, especially with regards to surveillance equipment and relevant automated systems for integrated border management. Moreover, BP officers are involved in activities for implementing the EUROSUR concept, and other activities.