The European Union largely supports combating illicit drug trafficking in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.

September 8, 2006.

    The Programme of Assistance for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Drug Trafficking in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova (BUMAD Programme), funded by European Commission and implemented by UNDP, is one of the significant initiatives in this field.
    The extent of EU funding of the Programme within the period 2003-2006 comprised ? 2,5 million. This year the European Commission’s support for implementation of the programme in Ukraine amounts to ? 450 000.
    One of the BUMAD Projects “Sea Ports Control” is aimed to reinforce control capacity in the Ukrainian seaports of Odessa and Illichevsk and support regional cooperation between the ports of the Black Sea in the field of combating illicit drug trafficking.
    Given increasing usage of maritime transportation system for illicit drug trafficking the need of close cooperation between governmental agencies and maritime trade companies was identified. The major objective of this cooperation is to enhance interdiction capacity.
    In order to improve this cooperation the seminar “Improvement of collaboration between customs and legitimate trade to avoid drugs trafficking under the cloak of normal commercial consignments” was conducted by BUMAD Program on August 29-31 in Odessa. The seminar was attended by representatives of State Customs Service and Security Service of Ukraine, maritime trade companies based in Odessa and EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine.
    The main outcome of the seminar consisted in the overall agreement of all participants to establish an exchange of maritime cargo information under relevant MOUs. The exchange of information will contribute greatly to the quality of risk analysis performed by law enforcement agencies. This will increase effectiveness of control measures in the seaports of Odessa and Illichevsk and avoid unnecessary delays of logistic processes of goods.
    In order to find a more detailed information on the Programme you can visit its web-page (http://bumad.un.kiev.ua) or contact programme manager :
    Vladilen Litnovskiy,
    BUMAD Program Regional Coordinator
    UNDP Ukraine
    tel.: + 380 44 501 4203
    + 380 67 233 8119
    е-mail: vladilen.litnovskiy@undp.org