| 18 February 2007 A joint Polish-Ukrainian border control procedure is to be introduced in 2007. Plans of such action have been discussed at a consultative meeting of both countries' border guard services held in Lviv. Deputy Head of the Ukrainian border services Pavlo Shysholin recalled the project should have been implemented already in 2006, but had been suspended because of insufficient infrastructure at the crossing points. According to him, the number of people and vehicles cleared at the Polish-Ukrainian border has reached a critical point. The joint procedures would streamline traffic, however, on condition of opening a sizeable number of new checkpoints. The Polish side fully shares this view, said chief of Poland’s border guard Miroslaw Kusmierczak. Last year over 19 million people crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border. There are only 12 checkpoints along the 530 kilometer Polish border stretch with Ukraine. By comparison, the shorter by 60 kilometers border strip with Germany, Poland’s western neighbor, has 38 such crossings.
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