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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. In cash terms, what is the EU contribution to the Mission?
A. The budget for the Mission until November 2007 was EUR 20 mn and will be EUR 24 mn for December 2007 to November 2009. In addition to the EC funding of the core EUBAM budget, many EU Member States are also providing direct contributions by funding secondments of border professionals from their national services to the Mission.
Q. How will the EUBAM initiative contribute to lowering crime/smuggling across the border?
A. It’s important to understand the role of the Mission in this respect. The EU stands ready to assist and advise on border management, but the responsibility for managing the border and fighting illegal cross-border movements or activities remains with the customs and border services of Moldova and Ukraine. EUBAM staff do not have the authority to perform the checks and enforce the legislation of Moldova or Ukraine. They are there to assist their national counterparts in doing so, notably through providing technical advice and on-the-job training. Furthermore, the EUBAM’s mandate allows it to observe customs clearance and to make unannounced on-the-spot checks at all border crossing points, along the green border, and inland at customs posts and other relevant locations such as the main transit ports. In addition to technical assistance which it delivers, EUBAM will further advise on the specific training and equipment needs of national services in view of other EU assistance programmes.
Q. One of the Mission’s goals is approximation of regional border management to EU standards. Does this mean that the EU will one day accept Moldova and Ukraine as full members?
A. The EU’s immediate goal is to work for a secure and stable environment in its neighbourhood which will allow trade and people to people contacts to flourish and at the same time to increase security in the region. We firmly believe that approximation to EU standards and best practices, which is also a declared aim of Moldova and Ukraine in the on-going reform efforts, can only benefit Moldova and Ukraine’s economic and social development.
What has the Mission discovered about weapons smuggling?
A. The Mission wasn’t sent here with the specific purpose of discovering weapons in the Transnistrian region of Moldova. The Mission is an advisory, technical body whose work is focussed on raising the skills and capacities of Moldovan and Ukrainian border professional We are not here to control the border. This remains the right and the duty of the sovereign states of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The Mission is aware that there have been rumours related to arms-trafficking from the Transnistrian region of Moldova. Obviously we are not in a position to speak about the period of time before the opening of the Mission but we have made clear on several occasions, that the EUBAM is not aware of any significant arms find since the operation of the Mission.
Q. How is this initiative going to make a contribution to solving the question of Transnistria?
A. Clearly EUBAM, which is essentially a technical assistance project, can only be a part of the story. Effective border management will contribute to enhanced stability and less opportunities for illicit activity. This should contribute, in turn, to a more favourable political environment for settling this outstanding issue. An overall solution can only be achieved at the political level, to which the EU is also separately contributing, notably by being involved in the 5+2 negotiations aimed at resolving this frozen conflict.
Q. What is the UN’s role in the Mission?
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was contracted by the European Commission as implementing partner for this project, to provide practical and administrative support to the Mission’s functioning. Both the Ukraine and Moldova offices of UNDP are providing such support. UNDP has been the implementing partner for other comparable EC projects in Eastern Europe, Caucasus or Central Asia. EUBAM is, however, clearly an EU mission. It constitutes politically the response to the request which the two Presidents made to the EU in June 2005. The Mission is entirely funded by the EU (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument), combined with contributions in kind from EU Member States). All professional staff of the Mission are EU citizens. EUBAM was designed by the EU in line with recommendations of the joint Council-Commission Fact-Finding Mission of August 2005, and in line with the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the European Commission and Moldova and Ukraine on 7 October 2005.
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