State Border Guard Service (Lithuania)

State Border Guard Service Valstybės sienos apsaugos tarnyba
Abbreviation	VSAT
Insignia of State Border Guard Service of Lithuania
Agency overview
Formed	May 1, 2001
Preceding agency	Border Police (1994-2001)
Employees	more than 5000
Annual budget	69.3M EUR (2008)
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
National agency	Lithuania
Governing body	Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania
General nature	Law enforcement Civilian agency
Specialist jurisdictions	National border patrol, security, and integrity. Coastal patrol, marine border protection, marine search and rescue.
Operational structure
Headquarters	Vilnius
Minister responsible	Skvernelis
Agency executive	General Vainius Butinas, Commander
Units	5 Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant Security Brigade Border Guard School Foreigners Registration Centre Aviation Unit Special Tasks Unit
Districts	6 Ignalina Frontier District Vilnius Frontier District Varėna Frontier District Lazdijai Frontier District Pagėgiai Frontier District Coast Guard District
Website
http://www.pasienis.lt/

The State Border Guard Service or SBGS (Lithuanian: Valstybės sienos apsaugos tarnyba) is the organisation under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior charged with controlling and maintaining the security of Lithuanian borders on land, in the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon. Since December 21, 2007, Lithuania is part of the Schengen Area and SBGS, partner of Frontex, controls about 1,070 kilometres (660 mi) of Area's external land border with Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus.

Following the declaration of independence on February 16, 1918, Lithuania had to ensure its border protection. This was a difficult task to fulfill, because the borders were changing (Lithuanian took over the Klaipėda Region in 1923 and was in a perpetual dispute with Poland over the Vilnius Region), and the bodies protecting the border were changing as well (the customs and patrol guards, militia and army).

The formation of the first border regiment was started on 1 February 1920. On 26 January 1922, the Lithuanian defence minister, Jonas Šimkus, issued an order designating 29 June as Border Regiment Day. At that time, border regiments protected the border, and the State Border Police was formed in the Klaipėda Region on 18 June 1923. Later, border regiments, units of the Ministry of Defence, were disbanded, and the border police of the Ministry of the Interior took over the protection of the state border on 1 January 1924. Before the first Soviet occupation, the number of Lithuanian border police was not large: 1,656 policemen in 1931 and 1,934 in 1933.

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