Ministry proposes to establish Estonia's eastern border requirements as EU border standard

TALLINN - The border standard currently being established in the European Union should meet the same requirements as the infrastructure to be constructed on Estonia's eastern border, spokespeople for the Estonian Ministry of the Interior said.  

"The Interior Ministry's idea of a border standard is based on the requirements set for the eastern border to be constructed in Estonia. This potential standard concerns detection, obstruction and identification of border offences, as well as capability for collecting information required for prevention," Jurgen Klemm, spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, said.

Government leaders of the EU member states at their summit in Brussels on Oct. 18 invited the European Parliament and the Council to develop "common minimum standards of external border surveillance, with due respect for the responsibility of the member states".

Klemm said that the common standard should ensure that all illegal activities and persons on the border are detected, that the border guard authorities have an overview of the situation on the border and in its immediate vicinity in the full extent of the border, that the collected information is analyzed quickly and shared with relevant institutions as well as used in activity planning, that the border infrastructure must prevent or hinder illegal crossing, that all offenders are caught in the immediate vicinity of the border, which requires a swift response and sufficient resources.