The Ministers of the Interior of the Baltic States, Poland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark have jointly addressed a letter to the European Commission (EC) calling for EU legislation to explicitly allow Member States in the region to make greater use of their national legal frameworks in cases of intentionally expanded migration. The deliberate use of migrants at the EU’s eastern external border from aggressor countries – Russia and Belarus – is both an element of hybrid warfare and a tactic used to destabilize the internal security of EU Member States and to influence the legal processes of Member States.
Illegal migration flows deliberately facilitated by third countries, or the instrumentalization of migration, must be distinguished from classic migration flows, including international protection. Instrumentalization of migration requires a different approach and different rules.
The region’s Interior Affairs Ministers have concluded that the current EU legal framework does not allow Member States to prevent and combat intentionally facilitated migration, which contributes to interference with national sovereignty and national security, in a sufficiently effective manner. Situations in such cases tend to vary. Therefore, when countries prevent this deliberate expansion of migration to the external borders of the EU, they base their actions on national legislation, such as the policy of deterrence.
Currently, the EU legal framework primarily provides tools to better manage international protection. While the Schengen Borders Code has set the process in motion by recognizing intentional extended migration at EU level, it does not address the situation effectively.
Minister of the Interior Rihards Kozlovskis points out that the use of migrants by aggressor countries should be seen as a security problem, not a migration problem, which requires different types of solutions. Often these solutions may differ from one Member State to another, as the tactics used by the aggressor countries tend to differ and, accordingly, the counter-measures implemented by each Member State in accordance with its national legislation may also differ. It is in the interest of the EU as a whole, not just individual Member States, to be able to combat hybrid attacks with the appropriate tools.
At the same time, the Minister stresses that it is on the basis of Latvian legislation that we have prevented an even greater flow of illegal border crossers, as entering the EU from our region is one of the cheapest and easiest ways.
Taking all the circumstances into account, the Ministers of the Interior of the region call on the EC to allow Member States to temporarily derogate from EU law on the grounds of state security. As well as to increase the possibilities for Member States to address the instrumentalization of migration in accordance with their national legislation. These initiatives should be included in the work programme of the new European Commission.
It has already been reported that since 2021, Belarus has started to implement the migrant crisis on the borders of the Baltic States. The State Border Guard, together with the National Police and the NAF, has been working since 2021 in a reinforced border protection regime to ensure order and security at the eastern external border of the EU. A total of 13863 people have been deterred from crossing the border illegally in 2023, while 2197 people have been deterred in 2024 up to and including 4 June.
