unsaveSave
expand-left
fullscreen The border between Finland and Russia at Vaalimaa, along the E18 in eastern Finland. Stock photo. Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa/AP/TT
Finland, Norway, Poland and the Baltic countries will share in almost two billion extra in EU support for monitoring the border with Russia and Belarus.
The new support of a total of 170 million euros can be used above all for updated electronic surveillance equipment.
– Europe must stand united against hybrid threats, says Henna Virkkunen, EU Commissioner for Technological Independence, Security and Democracy at a press conference in Brussels.
Wednesday’s package is the first to be put forward by the new EU Commission and can be seen as an indication of how much importance will be placed on protecting and guarding the EU’s external borders.
At the same time, there is still no opening for the EU money to also be used for concrete border obstacles – fences, walls or the like – which has long been a demand from the far right.
The new billion-dollar aid is distributed with 52 million euros to Poland, 50 million to Finland, 19.4 to Estonia, 17 to Latvia, 15.4 to Lithuania and also 16.4 million to the non-EU country Norway.