Officers at Šiauliai and Kaunas airports will be better technically equipped to perform border control. Fima has carried out a project of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS), installing systems to ensure safety and control of passengers as required by the Schengen statute-book.

“Citizens of 26 states of Schengen area have the right to travel across the Schengen space without border control. According to the requirements, such passengers have to be separated from flows of travellers from other countries. This led to the need to set up additional document check points at the airports of Šiauliai and Kaunas,” says Sigitas Ratkevičius, the deputy head of the Staff Activities Organisation Board of the SBGS.

Fima has installed two passenger check booths complete with the necessary facilities for four work places at the passenger terminals of each airport. Šiauliai airport has also been outfitted with a video surveillance system consisting of over 50 video cameras network. “The video cameras have been deployed across the territory so that they cover the areas that are most critical in terms of security, including the space from landing sites to check points,” says Giedrius Zaicevas, the director of Fima Security Solutions Department.

The project that has been implemented in the airports of Kaunas and Šiauliai cost over LTL 1 million and was financed with resources from the annual programme  2008 of the External Border Fund of the European Commission.

Within the framework of the External Border Fund programme 2007 – 2013, the Lithuanian border guards will be receiving EUR 54 million for various measures.

Lithuania committed itself to effectively organise external border checks and control and to manage the flows of people at external borders by signing the Schengen agreement.