Finnish Interior Minister Rantanen and Estonian Interior Minister Läänemets visit the eastern border

The interior ministers of Finland and Estonia visited the Pelkola border guard station and the Imatra border crossing point on 8 April. The exceptional circumstances at Finland's eastern border continue. The ministers were briefed on the current situation at the border and the project to build a fence on the border.

Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen and Estonian Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets met in Finland on 7 and 8 April.

“The exceptional situation and the threat of instrumentalised migration continue at the border. Russia is using instrumentalised migration against Finland. The Government decided on 4 April to keep the border closed until further notice, as long as is necessary,” said Minister of the Interior Rantanen.

The topics on the agenda of the ministers' bilateral meeting included the situation at the eastern border, instrumentalised migration, Finland’s draft act to combat instrumentalised migration, and the EU migration and asylum pact.

Ministers discussed the future of the EU's border and migration policy

Minister of the Interior Rantanen hopes that the EU will discuss mechanisms that would enable the temporary suspension of the processing of individual asylum applications in cases of large-scale illegal entry or instrumentalised migration.

“We have to be aware of what is happening at our external borders. Currently, international legislation does not provide solutions to instrumentalised migration. We need to think about how the EU and its Member States can together respond to the current challenges in order to ensure national security and the security of the whole of Europe. In addition to a joint response, it is important that the EU leaves room for individual Member States to use national legislation to safeguard their national security,” said Minister Rantanen.

The ministers also discussed civil defence. The number and capacity of Finland's civil defence shelters have attracted a lot of international interest. During his visit to Finland, Minister Läänemets also visited a civil defence shelter.

Inquiries:
Communications Unit, media.sm@gov.fi (requests for interviews with Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen)
 

Due to a human error, this translation was not originally published on the same day as the Finnish press release (8 April 2024)