Countries on EU's external border face common challenges

The interior ministers of Finland, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland met in Latvia's capital, Riga, on 23 and 24 May. The ministers discussed the countries' common security challenges, especially those concerning the EU's external borders. Finland was represented at the meeting by Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen. She briefed her colleagues about the Finnish Government's proposal on a border security act, which had just been submitted to Parliament.

"Our goal is to ensure that Finland has effective means to tackle situations where instrumentalised migration is used to put pressure on Finland. The phenomenon of instrumentalised migration on the EU's external borders is a common challenge for our countries. Finland also aims to find EU-level solutions to combat this phenomenon,” Minister Rantanen says.

The interior ministers discussed joint efforts to influence the work done in the EU to tackle instrumentalised migration. They stressed that EU-level action will be needed to enable Member States to effectively address the instrumentalisation of migration in order to protect their national security. The ministers also emphasised the importance of extensive border security cooperation between the countries on the EU's external border.

Sharing good practices to strengthen crisis preparedness and civil preparedness

Civil preparedness issues were also on the meeting agenda. The security environment in Europe has changed dramatically, and the EU and the Member States must prepare for increasingly challenging crises that extend beyond national borders and sectors. The interior ministers discussed how the countries could together strengthen both their crisis preparedness and civil preparedness. Minister Rantanen briefed her colleagues about Finland's civil defence system and the organisation of civil defence shelters.

“Today we agreed to develop and strengthen our countries' preparedness for crises and civil preparedness, and to share information and good practices in this field. For example, our civil defence shelters are an important and long-term investment in Finland's comprehensive security. We have a great deal of civil defence expertise that we would like to share with the other countries on the EU's external border,” Rantanen says.

Inquiries:
Laura Yli-Vakkuri, Director General, tel. +358 40 720 2216, firstname.lastname@gov.fi