On Wednesday, March 27 General Guntis Pujāts, Chief of the State Border Guard, and Fabrice Leggers, Executive Director of FRONTEX, signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the State Border Guard of the Republic of Latvia and the European Border Coast Guard Agency regarding the hosting of a FRONTEX Liaison Officer in the Republic of Latvia.
The Memorandum of Understanding sets out organizational issues related to the deployment of a FRONTEX Liaison Officer and issues of cooperation with the national authorities involved in the implementation of the Memorandum, such as the regular exchange of information on the situation, trends, potential threats at the external borders, cross-border crime and terrorism, and return issues.
The main task of a FRONTEX Liaison Officer is to develop cooperation and dialogue between FRONTEX and the national authorities responsible for border management, return and coast guard, as well as those authorities performing coastguard functions within the framework of border control.
A FRONTEX Liaison Officer will be deployed in Latvia, but will also be responsible for promoting cooperation with Estonia and Lithuania.
A FRONTEX Liaison Officer will start work in May 2019 and in the following years with his support the regular monitoring of Baltic States' management of the external borders, set out in the Regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard, will be ensured.
As already communicated, on March 5, 2019 the Cabinet of Ministers (CM) supported the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the State Border Guard of the Republic of Latvia and the European Border Coast Guard Agency regarding the hosting of a Liaison Officer in the Republic of Latvia. The Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš entrusted the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding to the Chief of State Border Guard - General Guntis Pujāts.