Border crossing at Vistula Spit launched
The Nowy Świat border crossing on the Vistula Spit was launched on Monday. The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Polish Border Guard, customs and tax services, Pomeranian voivode Dariusz Drelich and local government officials.
To mark the occasion, a press briefing was held on Monday with the participation of Pomeranian Voivode (Governor) Dariusz Drelich, Commander of the Maritime Regional Unit of the Border Guard, Rear Admiral Andrzej Prokopski, and Director of the Maritime Office in Gdynia, master mariner Wiesław Piotrzkowski. The ceremony was also attended by representatives of local and municipal authorities.
Governor Drelich said that the navigation channel on the Spit is one of those investments that strengthen Poland’s position as a sovereign state, militarily, economically and politically.
“For the first time in the post-war history of our country, it is not necessary to ask an eastern neighbour for permission to enter the Vistula Lagoon. The investment enables the free and year-round navigation of sea vessels to nearby ports and allows not only the development of the region, but also the economic growth of the whole country. Currently, there are two border crossings on the Vistula Lagoon – in Elbląg and Frombork. Today we are proud to open the sea border crossing Nowy Świat! It will be used to clear vessels on the new waterway for navigation between the Vistula Lagoon and the Baltic Sea”. – emphasised Pomeranian Voivode Dariusz Drelich.
Photos: MOSG
Rear Admiral Andrzej Prokopski added that this is the nineteenth maritime border crossing operated by MOSG officers, which will be operated 24 hours a day for passenger and cargo traffic.
“Vessel clearance will be carried out at two designated locations, the so-called border control points,” – Prokopski said. “The Nowy Świat border crossing allows a full opening of the way for international shipping between the Vistula Lagoon and the Baltic Sea, without the need to call at the ports of Elbląg and Frombork for border clearance there. It also increases the level of protection of the maritime border of the Republic of Poland and tightens the system for monitoring ship traffic, and we, as the Maritime Unit of the Border Guard, are fully prepared to ensure that border checks are carried out here,” – Andrzej Prokopski pointed out.
Officers from the border post in Krynica Morska will handle this location.
“Another facility has been put into operation at the location, in which neither crossing the border nor free navigation was possible before. The presence of the Border Guard here underlines the strategic and logistical importance of this new sea crossing. I am very pleased that the Maritime Office in Gdynia, which built this facility, administers the shipping channel and the entire Port, will be assisted by officers from the Maritime Branch of the Border Guard, the National Fiscal Administration and the Police. Together we will take care for the safest and most effective sluicing of all vessels wishing to sail from the Gulf of Gdansk to the Vistula Lagoon or vice versa, according to the rules of the Republic of Poland,” said Wiesław Piotrzkowski, Ph.D., Captain of the Maritime Office in Gdynia.
The opening of the Vistula Spit Crossing – a waterway linking the Vistula Lagoon with the Baltic Sea – took place on 17 September 2022.
The basis for establishing the Nowy Świat border crossing is the Ordinance of the Council of Ministers of 27 December 2022, amending the Ordinance on establishing sea and fixed air border crossings and the type of traffic permitted through these crossings. From now on, officers of the Maritime Border Guard Unit operate 19 sea and 2 air border crossings.
Passenger and cargo traffic is allowed through the Nowy Świat sea border crossing. Border checks will be carried out here by officers from the Border Guard Post in Krynica Morska. Inspections of vessels will take place in specially designated and marked areas at the quay, at so-called checkpoints, located before the entrance to the shipping channel, both from the Gulf of Gdansk and the Vistula Lagoon sides.
Checks will be carried out using mobile border check terminals. Officers will also have at their disposal office space in the Nowy Świat Harbour Master’s Office building, where it will be possible to carry out activities on the so-called 1st and 2nd line of border control. The number of officers in the control shift will be adequate for the volume of border traffic in order to ensure that tasks are carried out efficiently and on time.
In the area of the border crossing point, using a berth for vessels of the Maritime Unit of the Border Guard will also be possible. This considerably shortens the time of possible intervention against vessels in the area of the state border in the Gulf of Gdansk.
Source: PortalMorski.pl