By Anne Kauranen
SAARISELKA, Finland (Reuters) -Russia poses a much bigger risk to European Union safety than simply defence as Moscow can use unlawful immigration and different points to undermine the bloc, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni mentioned on Sunday.
Finland hosted the leaders of Italy, Sweden and Greece, in addition to the EU international affairs chief, in its northern Lapland area on the weekend to debate safety within the Nordic area and the Mediterranean, in addition to migration challenges in southern Europe.
“We have to understand the threat is much wider than we imagine,” Meloni, who leads a conservative authorities, advised a press convention when requested about Russia.
The hazard to EU safety from Russia or from elsewhere wouldn’t cease as soon as the Ukraine battle ended and the EU should be ready for that, she mentioned.
“It’s about our democracy, it’s about influencing our public opinion, it’s about what happens in Africa, it’s about raw materials, it’s about the instrumentalisation of migration. We need to know it’s a very wide idea of security,” Meloni mentioned.
She urged the EU to do extra to guard its borders and never let Russia or any “criminal organisation” steer the flows of unlawful migrants.
Some EU members together with Finland and Estonia have accused Russia of permitting unlawful migrants from the Center East and elsewhere to enter EU states through Russia with out correct checks, undermining the EU’s safety.
Moscow has denied Russia was intentionally pushing unlawful migrants into the EU.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo mentioned securing his nation’s 1,340-km (833 mile) border with Russia was “an existential” query for Finland and for different EU members and NATO allies.
Meloni mentioned the EU had been incorrect in coping with the difficulty of immigration over time merely when it comes to find out how to share the burden.
“Tackling the issue of illegal immigration solely as a solidarity-based debate was a mistake,” she mentioned. “The result is that we have been unable to protect our borders … We want to defend our external borders and we will not allow Russia or criminal organisations to undermine our security.”
Whereas NATO remained “the cornerstone” of EU safety, the bloc needed to sort out wider challenges, Meloni mentioned.
“Security also means critical infrastructure, it means artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, raw materials, supply chains. It means a new and more effective foreign and cooperation policy, it means migration,” she mentioned.
