| The Commission has adopted the multiannual programme under the External Borders Fund 2007-2013 for Lithuania for an estimated amount of € 32 million. An amount of € 108 million will complement this allocation to fund the Special Transit Scheme. It supports the implementation by Lithuania of the relevant EC regulations in relation to the management of the transit of persons by land between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the Russian Federation through the territory of the Community. Lithuania has also adopted its first annual programme 2007. Vice President Jacques BARROT in charge of the Justice, Freedom and Security portfolio, welcomed the adoption of the multiannual programme for the implementation of the External Borders Fund. "With the approval of this multiannual programme, Lithuania has shown its commitment to the establishment of the common integrated border management system after it joined the Schengen area as of December last year. This programme will complement the actions financed under the Schengen Facility and will reinforce the capacity of Lithuania to meet the challenges of border control on behalf of the EU as well as to manage the transit of persons between Kaliningrad and other parts of the Russian Federation." Lithuania has chosen to implement four of the Fund's five strategic priorities for the External Borders Fund 2007-2013: - Further gradual establishment of the common integrated border management system;
- Development of the national components of a European Surveillance system and/or a permanent European Patrol Network at the southern maritime borders;
- Establishment of IT systems required by Community rules on external borders and visas (VIS and SIS);
- Application of the Community rules on external borders and visas, in particular the Schengen Borders Code and the European Code on Visas.
Among the projects financed in the related 2007 annual programme in Lithuania are: - installation of video surveillance system at the Seaport Border station of Klaipeda;
- acquisition of hovercrafts and equipment for detection, identification and prevention of illegal border crossings.
Among the projects financed for the implementation of the Special Transit Scheme (Kaliningrad) are: - upgrade of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System for controlling the persons travelling by facilitated transit railway and land vehicles;
- installation of video observation cameras on transit trains, bearing in mind potential violations of the transit regime by the passengers of transit trains.
The Fund will also provide support to compensate for foregone fees from transit visas and the additional operational costs incurred by Lithuania in implementing the relevant EC Regulations mentioned above. Background: The External Borders Fund is one of the four financial instruments of the General Programme on "Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows" which encourages a fair share of responsibilities between Member States arising from the introduction of integrated management of the external borders and from the implementation of common policies on asylum and immigration. The other three Funds are: the European Fund for the Integration of Third country nationals, the European Return Fund and the European Refugee Fund. The External Borders Fund establishes a financial solidarity mechanism to support countries which endure, for the benefit of the Community, a lasting and heavy financial burden arising from the implementation of common standards on control and surveillance of external borders and visa policy. The overall budget of this Fund for 2007-2013 is € 1820 million, distributed as follows: - € 1543 million distributed among Member States on the basis of objective criteria expressing the burden of each state for external border control and visa policy for actions under national programmes;
- € 109 million (6%) directly managed by the Commission and dedicated to Community actions.
- € 108 million for the Kaliningrad transit scheme implemented by Lithuania
- € 60 million for specific actions at strategic border points at the external borders on the basis of risk analyses carried out by the FRONTEX Agency.
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