Pressure mounts for Brussels to fund border walls to curb migration

• Europe Merkel asks Putin to use his influence in Belarus and stop the wave of refugees

• Crisis The keys to the 'hybrid war' between Belarus and Poland

The debate is not legal, nor economic, but political, and politics is raising its voice until it becomes unbearable. For months, a growing number of countries have wanted the European Union to finance, out of their budgets,

to stop the arrivals of immigrants and asylum seekers. So far the community institutions have resisted, but the pressure in the Baltic countries and the East is increasing and the objections are disappearing.

"We have opened the debate on the financing of physical infrastructures of the borders with money from the European Union. It is something that must be resolved quickly. The Baltic and Polish borders are borders of the EU. One for all and all for one," he said. said this Wednesday the President of the European Council,

, from Warsaw, in an appearance together with the Prime Minister,

. A phrase loaded with anything but innocence.

Michel insisted, noting that the legal services of his house have blessed the possibility, something that few in high places question, and whose burden seeks to dynamite the political and moral resistance of his neighbors in the Commission. and of the Eurocamara.

Just two weeks ago, during the last European Council held in Brussels and in which Morawiecki was the protagonist for challenging the rule of law, the authority of the Court of Justice of the EU and the criticisms of many of his colleagues, the issue of walls was addressed. Michel opted for a low-key role, but Commission President

opposed outright. He believes, like half of the partners, that the walls have a terrible record on a continent that this week celebrates a new anniversary of the demolition of the one in Berlin.

, even if they are necessary, and that community money should be used in another way, some less loaded with symbolism at least. But there are fewer and fewer reluctants.

A few weeks ago, the ministers of 12 Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Slovakia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Poland itself) sent a letter to the two competent European Commissioners and to the Presidency EU temporary (in Slovenian hands) claiming direct funding. "Recent events at the external borders of the European Union show that

, which will allow us to adequately address attempts to instrumentalize illegal migration for political purposes and other hybrid threats, "the letter reads." Physical barriers appear to be an effective border protection measure that serves the interests of all the EU, not just the Member States of the first arrival. This legitimate measure should be additionally and adequately financed from the EU budget as a matter of priority. This should also apply to the Green Line, in the case of Cyprus, which does not constitute an external border, "added the 12, which is actually 13 if Slovenia is counted,

.

The issue is now more heated than ever because of the "brutal hybrid attack" -in Michel's words today- that Poland is suffering these days from Belarus, whose government has been chartering planes for months from places like Iraq or Afghanistan to abandon desperate families with the community territory to generate a crisis. But the issue has a long way to go and dates back to at least 2015, with the arrival of more than a million people mostly from Syria, with a summer plagued by incidents, incendiary reactions and a crisis that almost blew up the Schengen area. of free movement.

From Warsaw, Michel and Morawiecki have lashed out at Lukashenko.

the Polish prime minister said of the attempts to destabilize the borders, with hundreds of families left to fend for themselves in increasingly unbearable temperatures.

The Commission responds that in the Budgets there are already

, from Frontex to resources for infrastructures. To help and for projects, but not to pay for additional walls like those that Poland, Lithuania or Latvia want. From Von der Leyen's team they say that you have to focus on useful things and not on political and politicized debates. Some neighbors have hundreds of kilometers of external borders.

they wonder.

For its part, Warsaw, which wants to take advantage of this issue to put aside its past clashes and get support from its neighbors, has asked Michel to hold a teleconference of heads of State and Government this month to discuss possible sanctions against Belarus . Michel has not been blunt, because he believes that it is an issue that the ambassadors of the 27 in Brussels should address first and then the ministers, but he does not rule it out either.

Brussels is studying these days measures to react

. From sanctions to the countries of origin or transit of these forced migrations financed by Lukashenko (the EU has already managed to get Baghdad to stop charters) to the airlines that carry out the movements. Next Monday the foreign ministers will have an ordinary council and the first punitive decisions are expected to be taken.

will shortly begin a series of trips to sensitive places to convince their governments to stop collaborating with the dictatorship or they will risk economic retaliation.

The EU already has sanctions in place but Warsaw believes that they are not enough and they are not causing harm.

Last year, the Cyprus veto (upset by its partners' lukewarm reaction to Turkey) temporarily delayed and minimized sanctions.

This summer, after the hijacking of a plane for the illegal detention of an opponent, they were reinforced.

to reduce tension," Von der Leyen urged from Washington, while Chancellor Angela Merkel did the same with Vladimir Putin in a telephone call.

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Know more

• Poland

• European Union

• Latvia

• Lithuania

• Belarus

• Vladimir Putin

• Angela Merkel

• Russia

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