“It seemed a pretty crazy idea, but now we have almost realized it! And we have done it all together!” – it was once said by the Lithuanian State Police commissioner of Utenai Vitautas Vaiskunas in one of the thematic meetings of the project “SYNERGY FOR SECURITY” with the Latvian colleagues. He admitted that the two years have gone by unnoticed. Several years ago one of the representatives of the partners of the project – the chairperson of the State Police of Latvia the Regional Administration of Latgale Juris Pastars in one of the meetings with the colleagues mentioned an idea of such a synergic cooperation. And now this idea, which seemed far and utopian back then, has almost been realized. “It has always been harder for the pioneers as they are the first ones. We are definately the first ones in Lithuania! And now we even have the followers appeared, e.g., in Marijampole.” admitted Vaitautas Vaiskunas. The commissioner of Uten pointed out another important topic to discuss in the nearest future which is a contract about strategic and operative exchange of information between the ombudsman of the borderland area – it would give an opportunity to exchange the information fast and without bureaucratic obstacles. “The project is very good as it is an open one – it does not have an end and other institutions, e.g., other security structures can join it. We in Lithuania share our experience gained in the project and we feel the interest from the others, e.g., the side of the customs. It could be similar with the Latvian National Armed Forces and the national security services. And we can be proud – this very useful instrument for the international cooperation was created by two partners of the project – the State Police of Latvia and the Commissariat of Uten”, it was summarized by Vitautas Vaiskunas.

The chairperson of the State Police of Latvia the Regional Administration of Latgale Juris Pastars stresses: “We are the first discoverers of several topics in Latvia. For example, the very topical issue about the purchase of the CCTV cameras – when we started the project, there was very little information about it. Now well-known and serious merchants have appeared offering to supply with special cameras with the recognition function of the registration number of a vehicle.” Juris Pastars also emphasises the pioneer aspect of the project as what has been accomplished can be seen as the news to other security institutions, and most probably what has been started by the State Police and the Borderguard will be followed by the customs and the State Revenue Service. It would be very valuable for two reasons – first, the level of safety in the borderland area would only increase and, secondly, the idea of the platform of synergic cooperation would be more justified – it could be continued to broaden and develop.

Quite an unexpected evaluation of the project has been given by the commander of Ignalina Frontier District of State Border Guard Sauļus Tamulevičus. He appreciated the knowledge and skills obtained not only during the professional trainings in the project, but also the whole experience together – to participate in such a big project in the EU as this was his first opportunity to cooperate with the colleagues from different states of the EU.

This publication has been prepared with the financial support of the EU. The State Police of Latvia is fully responsible for its content and under no circumstances it shall be seen as the official attitude of the EU.

This publication has been prepared with financial support from the European Union. The content of the publication is entirely the responsibility of the State Police of the Republic of Latvia, and   does not constitute an official position of the European Union.

INTERREG V-A Latvia-Lithuania Programme project LLI-082 „SYNERGY FOR SECURITY”

Budget: 580 236,21 EUR – 85% ERDF funding, 15% national co-financing (incl. state co-financing – 5% in LV, 7,5% in LT)

Duration: 32 MONTHS (May 17, 2017-November 16, 2019) The project is co-financed by the Latvia-Lithuania programme. Project Lead partner is latvian State police.

Website of the 2014.-2020 INTERREG V-A Latvia-Lithuania Programme: www.latlit.eu/

Official website of the European Union: www.europa.eu