National Customs Agency

The Director General of the National Customs Agency Mr. Georgi Kostov met with the Head of CELBET Mr. Jyrki Linna and the Project Coordinator Ms. Pille Jogisoo during their visit to Bulgaria. At the meeting, which was held in the Central Customs Directorate on 03.09.2019,was taken stock about the achieved so far within the first two phases of the CELBET project (Customs Eastern and South-Eastern Land Border Expert Team) and were outlined some of the important tasks, that are forthcoming during the third phase.  
This is one of the best and most useful projects for cooperation, which is entirely focused on customs needs. The exchanges of staff, as well as the technical feasibility study, which are parts of the project activities, are extremely useful for the customs administration, as well as for the harmonization of the EU external border management, highlighted the management of the National Customs Agency.
The Director General of the National Customs Agency emphasized that against the background of the progressively increasing traffic of heavy- duty vehicles through the Bulgarian-Turkish border, the only working strategy is the extensive increase in the processing capacity by means of setting of more sophisticated  risk profiles and the Bulgarian Customs have adopted this approach.  
Mr. Kostov and Mr. Linna agreed that the risk analysis and the information exchange, necessary for it, are a key aspect. The Head of CELBET outlined the land cargo transport as focus also of the next, third project phase.
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The Customs Eastern and South-Eastern Land Border Expert Team (CELBET) started in 2016 with the participation of 11 Member States (Bulgaria, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Finland, Croatia). The main goal of the project is to enhance the operational cooperation between the participating Member States, to exchange knowledge and experience and to harmonize the EU land border management.