Border patrol base for Poland
This is the first EU body to be located in one of the 10 new member states.
Poland was competing against Hungary, Malta, Estonia and Slovenia as a location for the BCA, but one diplomat at a meeting in Luxembourg said: "Poland got the border agency." The BCA will monitor how EU states patrol the external borders and help train border police. Polish officials have said that it may be based in the Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw's city center.
Poland is no stranger to keeping its borders secure; it polices 1,200 km on its eastern edge between Russia, Belarus and Ukraine alone.
Although such agencies attract small budgets and a low profile, hosting them is a matter of some prestige for EU members. The budget for the BCA this year is some EUR 6 million (zł.25) million in start-up costs and it will have a budget of EUR 30 (zł.123) million in 2009.
Poland had lobbied its EU partners heavily in the past months to get to host the agency, which has to be up and running on May 1. (Reuters)
Poland was competing against Hungary, Malta, Estonia and Slovenia as a location for the BCA, but one diplomat at a meeting in Luxembourg said: "Poland got the border agency." The BCA will monitor how EU states patrol the external borders and help train border police. Polish officials have said that it may be based in the Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw's city center.
Poland is no stranger to keeping its borders secure; it polices 1,200 km on its eastern edge between Russia, Belarus and Ukraine alone.
Although such agencies attract small budgets and a low profile, hosting them is a matter of some prestige for EU members. The budget for the BCA this year is some EUR 6 million (zł.25) million in start-up costs and it will have a budget of EUR 30 (zł.123) million in 2009.
Poland had lobbied its EU partners heavily in the past months to get to host the agency, which has to be up and running on May 1. (Reuters)
