By Anne Kauranen
SAARISELKA, Finland (Reuters) -Russia poses a greater threat to the European Union’s security than mere defense as Moscow can use illegal immigration and other issues to undermine the bloc, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday. .
Finland hosted the leaders of Italy, Sweden and Greece, as well as the EU foreign affairs chief, in its northern region of Lapland at the weekend to discuss security in the Nordic region and the Mediterranean, as well as migration challenges. in southern Europe.
“We have to understand that the threat is much broader than we imagine,” Meloni, who leads a conservative government, said at a news conference when asked about Russia.
The danger to the EU’s security from Russia or elsewhere would not cease once the Ukraine conflict ended and the EU must be prepared for that, he said.
“It’s about our democracy, about influencing our public opinion, about what’s happening in Africa, about raw materials, about the instrumentalization of migration. We need to know that it is a very broad idea of security,” Meloni said.
He urged the EU to do more to protect its borders and not allow Russia or any “criminal organisations” to direct illegal migrant flows.
Some EU members, including Finland and Estonia, have accused Russia of allowing illegal immigrants from the Middle East and elsewhere to enter EU states through Russia without adequate checks, undermining EU security.
Moscow has denied that Russia was deliberately pushing illegal migrants into the EU.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said securing his country’s 1,340-kilometer (833-mile) border with Russia was “an existential issue” for Finland and other EU members and NATO allies.
Meloni said the EU had been wrong to approach the issue of immigration over the years simply in terms of how to share the burden.
“Addressing the issue of illegal immigration solely as a solidarity debate was a mistake,” he said. “The result is that we have failed to protect our borders… We want to defend our external borders and we will not allow Russia or criminal organizations to undermine our security.”
While NATO remains “the cornerstone” of EU security, the bloc has to address broader challenges, Meloni said.
“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,” he stated.