The EU offers assistance to Romania and Bulgaria on strengthening border security through a range of projects designed to help both countries comply with EU standards. In particular, through the European Commission's 2005 Phare programme, we have provided assistance to Romania to the value of €41 million for nine projects covering training and the provision of equipment, such as “Upgrading the Surveillance Capacity of Romanian Border Police Special Surveillance Vehicles”. Similar capacity building was provided to Bulgaria amounting to almost €17 million for “Development of Centralised Information Systems and Introduction of EU Best Practices and Standards in the Field of Border Control”. Many other EU projects on other aspects of accession preparations also touch on border security, e.g. customs, veterinary controls and police training.