Eastern Finland’s position as a border region also comes up in the discussions.
Maria Stenroos,
Terhi Toivonen
The situation of the Eastern Border and Eastern Finland will be the focus of the European Union’s attention today, Friday, when the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen visits Finland’s eastern border, Imatra.
Von der Leyen and the Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (collective) visit the border and negotiate in Lappeenranta.
The president of the EU Commission has wanted to come and get to know the situation on the eastern border, because taking care of the security of the border areas will be a concern of the EU countries in the coming years as well.
Finland is preparing to combat the arrival of asylum seekers moved by Russia with the help of new laws that are still being prepared. The same type of instrumentalized immigration has been seen at the borders with Belarus in the Baltic countries. The Union has helped Finland by sending border guards from other EU countries.
Visiting the border is part of von der Leyen’s way of rousing Europe to respond to security threats. Von der Leyen, for example, has been ordered by the president From Sauli Niinistö for the next commission, a report on improving the overall security of European countries.
According to von der Leyen, the war in Ukraine and the Middle East are influenced by a group of authoritarian countries, which he includes Russia, Iran and North Korea. The conflicts of recent times should be understood as part of this whole, von der Leyen said on Wednesday at a defense and security event in Brussels.
The regions of the EU’s eastern border suffer after the Russian border is closed
The discussions in Lappeenranta do not only concern the border but the whole of Eastern Finland. The closing of the Russian border has narrowed the business life of Eastern Finland, as trade and tourism are practically at a standstill.
Finland has thought about how to support Eastern Finland, but so far the government has not started supporting the region with money.
The work of the commission led by von der Leyen will end in the fall, but the program of the new commission is already being prepared. Finland hopes that its concerns about the border and the vitality of Eastern Finland would be noticed.
*The news is being updated