Customs services workshop opens in Tbilisi.

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TBILISI, July 28 (Itar-Tass) —— A two-day customs workshop opened in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Wednesday, July 27, as part of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Programme.

The workshop was organised by the Polish Customs with the organisational support of Georgian Customs. The meeting’ s participants, representatives of EU membership administrations and the Eastern Partnership countries, will have debate on the customs services’ activities in the EU and EaP countries which is aimed at addressing convergence of law and practices in the customs area.

Exchange of best practices and knowledge gathering on the level of convergence of customs legislation and customs practices of the EaP countries to the EU solutions, will let to set priorities and strategic actions being implemented by the countries of the EaP with the support of EU member states and the European Commission.

The main areas of interest are: transit procedures, facilitation and simplification of border controls, mechanisms for improvement in the area of cooperation between border services and application of the management techniques in information, risk, random and targeted control. An important element is at the same time creating a transparent and fair functioning of the customs services in the EaP countries in order to improve conditions of customs clearance and of the smooth flow of cross-border traffic and to facilitate trade.

Based on the agreed priorities and actions, EaP countries will be able to apply for specific bilateral actions with the EU member states, the European Commission, such as twinning projects, internships, study visits, infrastructure and modernisation projects.

The outcomes of the Workshop will be presented to the Customs Union Group on the 5th September meeting and at the Customs 2013 High-Level Seminar on Eastern Neighbourhood Customs Cooperation “Towards Better Cooperation” scheduled on October 19-21, 2011 in Krakow.

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