16.10.2017

The Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov had talks with the Minister of Customs and Trade of the Republic of Turkey Bülent Tüfenkci within the high-level meeting of the delegations of the Bulgarian and Turkish customs administrations.

Both ministers highlighted the importance of the good cooperation between the customs administrations of the two countries in the context of the movement of goods and citizens, putting the emphasis on Bulgaria’s role as a “door” to Europe for the Turkish state. Fighting smuggling and illegal traffic was therefore mentioned as a priority for both countries. The possible measures contributing to the work of the customs administrations at the border checkpoints, traffic ease, smaller intensity and optimisation of processes were discussed. Minister Goranov assured the Turkish representatives that in the person of Bulgaria they had a partner that was interested in developing the relations between both states into the most friendly and neighbouring interrelations.

In parallel to the meeting between the two ministers the premises of the Customs Agency hosted a meeting between the heads of the customs administrations of both states. The Director of the Customs Agency Georgi Kostov met Cenap Aşçı, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Customs and Trade, and Mustafa Gümüş, Director General of the Turkish Customs. Both sides reported the high level of cooperation and stressed that a great part of the issues posed had been addressed or had been in the process of being addressed since the last meeting between the heads of the customs administrations. Mr. Georgi Kostov made his counterparts familiar with two of the big projects of the Bulgarian Government, i.e. reducing the administrative burden and the toll system which were directly linked to the faster movement of freight vehicles across the country and through the border points. Cooperation in the area of customs intelligence, investigation and enforcement was also discussed, with both sides highlighting the testing of a method of exchanging X-ray images. Agreement was reached to carry out joint operations with regard to tackling drug trafficking and smuggling.

The members of the Bulgarian and Turkish delegations united around the idea of stirring the contacts between both customs administrations at the operational level even further both in the area of customs violation and in view of aligning the processing of heavy and light vehicles even better so as to make their crossing the border points faster.