Practice makes perfect – CELBET & Frontex common training

On 21-25 May, Customs Training Centre in Vilnius, Lithuania was hosting the joint training course for customs officers and border guards “Enhanced cooperation between Customs and Border Guard at external land border crossing points”.

The training was organised by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) together with CELBET. During the training, the discussions on the importance for both services to cooperate and the benefits of such cooperation were held. 22 officials from the EU and third countries particpated in the training which was run by an international team of 10 experienced trainers both from customs and border guard administrations.

Developing the training course for border guards and customs was done according to the plan agreed between CELBET, Frontex and DG TAXUD meeting that was organised in the beginning of February 2017 for discussing the content and timeframe of the training course.

The course consisted of the online training part, which was followed by the online test and trainees who pass the test were invited to take part in the face-to-face session in Vilnius. The content of the course covered all different aspects of work in the BCP:

  • Cooperation in information exchange
  • Cooperation in performing border checks
  • Cooperation in countering border related violations
  • Cooperation in the field of infrastructure and equipment
  • Cooperation in BCP management.

The training material, which was developed for the course was uploaded to FRONTEX virtual learning platform.

This training was organised for the second time when the first one took place in January 2018 in Warsaw.