Finland 2024
Finland’s BSRBCC Presidency 2024
1st BSRBCC Baltic Border Committee meeting 2024
The first BSRBCC Baltic Border Committee meeting of Finland’s BSRBCC Presidency 2024 was organized in Helsinki, Finland on 19-21 March 2024. The meeting was attended by BSRBCC representatives from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex. Furthermore, representatives from Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the CBSS Secretariat participated in the meeting.
A number of topical BSRBCC matters were discussed at the meeting, such as Finland’s 2024 BSRBCC Presidency Action Plan, the BSRBCC’s Operational phase and Annual Threat Assessment work in 2024, activities of the planned Multipurpose Maritime Operation in the Baltic Sea region as well as Finland’s ongoing CBSS Presidency. In addition, the participants provided updates on their respective topical issues, development projects and the operational environment. The European Maritime Safety Agency EMSA participated in the meeting online and provided the participants with an update on the status of the Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE), which has reached the operational implementation phase as of January 2024.
Frontex is co-financing the activities of Finland’s BSRBCC Presidency. The Finnish Border Guard has also received funding from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland for the project “Developing Coast Guard Cooperation in the Baltic Sea region”, the activities of which have been interlinked with the BSRBCC Presidency.
1st BSRBCC Annual Threat Assessment Seminar 2024
The first Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) seminar of Finland’s BSRBCC Presidency 2024 was organized in Helsinki, Finland on 10-11 April 2024. The meeting was attended by BSRBCC representatives from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex.
The draft of the BSRBCC’s Pre-Annual report was presented and discussed during the meeting. Furthermore, representatives from all participating BSRBCC Member states and Frontex presented their respective situational understanding of the current cross-border threats in the Baltic Sea area. The discussions of the ATA seminar highlighted that Members of the BSRBCC have a coherent shared awareness of the situation in the Baltic Sea and the surrounding region.
1st BSRBCC Cruise Ship Meeting 2024
The first BSRBCC Cruise Ship Meeting was organized online on 16 April 2024. The discussions of the meeting focused on issues related to risk analysis and border checks for cruise ships in the EU. In the maritime law enforcement domain there are many topics that go beyond regional cooperation, such as the BSRBCC, and will have an effect on all coastal states in the EU and Schengen area.
With this background, Finland extended a warm welcome to all representatives of Member States beyond the BSRBCC forum who were able to participate in this meeting. The participants of the meeting consisted of representatives from Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex.
