site.btaDirector of Customs Agency Pavel Tonev Meets with Head of EU’s Customs Expert Team Andras Bartha

Director of Bulgaria’s National Customs Agency Pavel Tonev met with Andras Bartha, head of the Customs Eastern and South-Eastern Land Border Expert Team (CELBET), the Customs Agency said in a release on Wednesday.

The meeting took place on March 29 at the Central Customs Office in Sofia and was part of a series of talks between the head of CELBET and the directors of customs administrations from the 11 CELBET member states, the statement said.

Andras Bartha listed the many successful activities carried out under the initiative, which will be continued and enriched in the future, and outlined the development goals of CELBET for the next programming period (2023-2027). CELBET's work is aimed at improving co-operation and the exchange of good practices among member states, he said.

CELBET is a cooperation group, and what we need in the EU is practical cooperation, Bartha added and stressed that Bulgarian customs officers are the best at detecting customs crimes among all CELBET member states.

Pavel Tonev, Director of the National Customs Agency, stressed the importance of the trainings conducted by CELBET, as well as the crucial role of the initiative in the exchange of information and good practices regarding the application of customs bans and restrictions, physical control procedures and organization of work of the customs checkpoints.

Bulgaria is a CELBET member state along with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Greece, Romania and Croatia.