A ceremony for the commissioning and award of the flag to two maritime patrol vessels built under a project worth 26 million euros on non-repayable European funds took place on Thursday in the Port of Constanta in the presence of Inspector General of the Romanian Border Police Victor Sefan Ivascu, Agerpres reports.
According to the Coast Guard, the receiver of the two boats, the acquisition of maritime patrol vessels and response boats boosts the Romanian Border Police operational capacity for carrying out specific missions to ensure the observance of the rights of the Romanian state in the maritime waters, the surveillance and control of the sea border, the prevention and combat of illegal migration and trans-frontier crimes, the search for ships in danger and the rescue of their crews.
Part of the management of the migration phenomenon at the external borders of the EU, the acquisition of new means of naval mobility will help the Romanian Border Police meet its commitments to the Frontex Agency regarding the deployment of technical equipment for joint operations at the EU extremal sea borders.
The project for building the two vessels started in March 2021, when the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Border Police signed a commercial agreement for the purchase of two maritime patrol vessels – Damen FCS 4008 PATROL – with Damen Shipyards Gorinchem B.V. Netherlands. The contract was part of a project for the acquisition of means of naval mobility necessary for Frontex.
The value of the contract is RON 154.6 million (26 million euros), a project developed on non-reimbursable European funds under the Internal Security Fund.
The Romanian Border Police manage 2,070 kilometres of the external border of the European Union, including 243.5 kilometres at the Black Sea. Their fleet is designed to provide an efficient surveillance system for the continuous coverage of a sea space of approximately 30,000 square kilometres (inland waterways, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone and the exclusive economic zone).
Agerpres
