Rapid increase in people crossing the Norwegian, Russian border in the north triggers new initiatives to ease the border formalities. A new ad-hoc working group will now identify possibilities to establish a common border crossing facility, instead of two separate border stations.
You know you have to allow for extra time when crossing out of a Schengen-member state to another eastern European country. First in-and-out of the Schengen passport control, then drive some few meters for another passport and customs control in the country you are visiting.
The Russian border station Borisoglebsk. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
So also at Europe’s northernmost external Schengen border; between Norway and Russia’s Kola Peninsula. The two existing border stations are located some 250 meters from each other.
Both Norway and Russia have for some time been planning to build new border stations since the existing ones are crowded to capacity in peak-hours.
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The idea to build a common border station was first raised at a September meeting between Murmansk Governor Dmitri Dmitrienko and Finnmark Governor Runar Sjåstad. Head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat Rune Rafaelsen participated at the meeting.
- The main purpose of the border is to facilitate for increased contacts between businesses and ordinary people on each side. A solution that should be considered is a common border station that could make Storskog, Borisoglebsk to the most effective border crossing point between east and west, says Rune Rafaelsen.
At the Murmansk-meeting, Rafaelsen suggested that a joint working group should be established to study the proposal.
The idea was supported by Intergovernmental Norwegian, Russian Working Group for Regional and Cross Border Cooperation that met in Bodø in northern Norway last week.
At the meeting it was decided to establish an ad-hoc Sub-Group of experts to discuss and identify possibilities to establish a common border crossing facility. The protocol from the meeting is signed by Russia’s Deputy Minister for Regional Development Maxim Travnikov and State Secretary Rikke Lind in the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry.
- The problems we are experiencing today will grow in future, as traffic across the border continues to increase. This is a challenge on both sides and we want to find a long term solution to this specific common problem. We have already agreed to hold the first meeting of the group before Christmas, says State Secretary Rikke Lind in a news-brief posted at the Norwegian government’s portal.
Norwegian border station Storskog. Photo: Thomas Nilsen
Russia believes it could be possible to attract grants to such new border facility from EU’s Kolarctic Interreg program, according to a news-brief posted at Russia’s Ministry of Regional Development.
Deputy Minister Maxim Travnikov will visit the border next week, when he participates at a joint business and cultural arrangement in the Russian border town of Nikel. Thereafter, Travnikov will visit the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes.
If Norway and Russia decides to build a common border station it will be the first such simplified border crossing point on an external Schengen border to Eastern Europe.
