The seventh meeting of the Steering Committee for Crown Agents’ Bulgarian Customs Modernisation Programme was held in Sofia. The meeting, which takes place each quarter, gathered representatives of all the key stakeholders of the Customs reform process – the Crown Agents, the Ministry of Finance, the Bulgarian Customs Agency, the National Revenue Agency, the Ministry of Interior, the European Commission Delegation in Bulgaria and the PHARE programme. The Eurocustoms, the IMF, and the World Bank are also among the participating organisations.

With the agreement of the Finance Minister, the latest quarterly report on the progress of the Bulgarian Customs Modernisation Programme was presented to the committee by Crown Agents’ senior managers for Bulgaria – Mr. Brian Banks, Programme Director; Mr. David Smith, Programme Manager; and Mr. Frank Ferguson, Principal Customs Advisor. We are pleased to report that the programme and our cooperation with the BCA and the other stakeholders continue to produce good results, as confirmed by the increasing rise in customs revenues. Our work with the management of the BCA continues to ensure the sustainability of the reforms being introduced. We are now in the final phase of training Bulgarian staff to take full responsibility for the operation of the mobile teams.