| 2 March 2007 On 2 March the Polish Minister of Interior Janusz Kaczmarek visited the HQ of the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM). He was briefed on the EUBAM's activities by the Head of Mission, Ferenc Banfi. The Minister has outlined that border-related challenges faced in Ukraine and Moldova are the same as those faced by other European states. Common efforts should be put to work together to meet those challenges. Poland has many years of experience in this area and is currently working with Ukraine on a range of border issues. He has highlighted that is in the common European interest to promote the efficient movement of trade and people over European borders and in this regard harmonisation of standards and procedures is needed. The Polish delegation included Wieslaw Tarka, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and Adminstration, Konrad Kornatowski, Commander in Chief of the Police, and Jacek Bajger, Deputy Commander in Chief of the Border Guard. Wieslaw Mazur, the Consul-General of Poland in Odessa and Leszek Szerepka, the Political Counsellor of the Polish Embassy in Kyiv. General Banfi emphasised the Mission's efforts to promote cross-border cooperation on border issues and noted the importance of states such as Poland in this regard. "Poland plays a particularly important role as one of the EU member states on the external border of the EU", he said. "EUBAM is grateful to Poland for the consistent and practical support it is giving to the Mission, including the direct secondment and funding of fifteen of its own national customs and border experts to work at the Mission; this is the single largest national contingent in EUBAM."
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