Estonia will receive 19.4 million euros from the EU to strengthen measures to repel “hybrid threats on the border with the Russian Federation,” reports ERR.
The European Commission will allocate 170 million euros to six countries to strengthen measures to repel hybrid threats on the eastern border of the EU, follows from the message.
“The decision of the commission shows, on the one hand, that Europe is more seriously related to the protection of its eastern border, and on the other hand, it demonstrates confidence in the achievements and plans of Estonia, – commented the decision of the European Commission, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Estonia Lauri Laurememetts.
According to the minister, Estonia made efforts that, along with other security problems, EU partners would better understand the challenges and threats on the eastern border of Europe.
“Estonia is responsible for protecting the external borders of the European Union and the Schengen zone. With the help of these extra money, we will be able to introduce the best technologies and opportunities to protect our own border in the narrow sense, as well as the safety of the entire Schengen visa space in a wider way”, he said.
Estonia will receive 19.4 million euros, Latvia – 17 million euros, Lithuania – 15.4 million euros, Finland – 50 million euros, Poland – 52 million euros, Norway – 16.4 million euros.
The tools will be aimed at modernizing electronic observation equipment, improving telecommunication networks, deploying mobile means of detecting and preventing airplane attacks to ensure awareness of the situation in real time and increase the mobility of border patrols.
Estonia, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasized that the Russian Federation and Belarus “use migration as a political weapon to destabilize the situation in European countries and weakening the integrity of the Schengen zone”, and in 2024 the number of illegal crossings of the border between the EU and Belarus increased compared to 2023 by 2023 66 percent.