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During a visit to the Lithuanian-Belarusian border with Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrid Šimonyte on Saturday, Schin emphasized that last year’s migratory outbreaks occurred on the Greek-Turkish border, as well as a few months ago in the Spanish autonomous communities of North Africa. , and “Now here those who seek to use migration as a political weapon will be defeated.”
“But this situation is another message for us in the European Union that this is the right time to move towards a more predictable and understandable European migration policy agenda. Now is the right political time to move from a firefighting operation to an architectural operation, ”said M. Schinas at the Medininkai Border Guard School.
Last year, the European Commission proposed changes to common rules on migration and asylum, but Schin said negotiations on the matter had been hampered by a coronavirus pandemic.
According to him, these rules will be negotiated by the leaders of the EU in autumn.
The revision of the migration rules is relevant to the community in anticipation of the influx of migrants from Afghanistan, which was taken over by the Taliban in late August.
Speaking about the migration crisis in Lithuania, M. Schinas reiterated that the EU takes the position that the Lithuanian border is “the European border” and that the community “is in solidarity and unity with Lithuania”.
“We Europeans strongly reject any attempt to instrumentalize people and human suffering for political purposes. We cannot and will not tolerate any attempt by third countries to exploit migration to attack our union,” said the Vice President of the European Commission.
According to him, the situation in Lithuania is not normal, because the migratory flows are “supported by authoritarian leaders”, who try to use them as a lever in the negotiations. The European Commissioner stated that he was aware of Lithuania’s proposals for a common migration policy and that they would be discussed in the autumn in various formats in the EU.
“We are currently working with European countries and the European Parliament to find the best way to deal with the situation. Because the rules are not designed for this situation,” Schin added.
He stressed that since the start of the crisis in the summer, the EU has supported Lithuania by sending an “impressive amount” of resources and other support, and 150 EU officials have been used to fight Lithuania through Frontex.
“We also responded to Lithuania’s requests for LTL 36.7 million in emergency aid” to alleviate the consequences of the situation that has arisen here, “said M. Schin.
The EC Vice-President also states that, although EU rules do not allow direct financing of the construction of a fence on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border, funds will be allocated for general border protection, such as surveillance systems. .
I. Šimonytė awaits the EU consensus in autumn
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė pointed out that the crisis in Lithuania is not a “traditional migration” but an “orchestrated operation” that is being carried out for the political purposes of the Belarusian regime.
Therefore, according to her, the EU “needs a different approach to the rules, the requirements, the implementation, the institutions that take responsibility for the implementation of those requirements.”
“So crises should not be a normal state, but a very, very rare situation. And I hope that the discussions that will begin in the new political season of the EU, which will continue both at the institutional level and at the European Council, will really allow us to reach the I agree when the immigration policy house is not built from the roof, but from the ground up, “declared I. Šimonytė.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that Lithuania “received a lot” of help from the EU and saw it as a response to Lithuania’s earlier contribution to solving the 2015 migration crisis in southern Europe.
He did not specify what changes in migration rules Lithuania is proposing, but hinted that the goal was “to find a very good balance” between the protection of human rights and the “elementary abuse that also occurs in this area and the fact that the external borders have not disappeared “.
“International agreements have been drawn up that are valid for solving very real practical problems, but they should not be a tool for people whose criminal business is organizing trips of illegal immigrants to load their pockets,” said I. Šimonytė.
According to her, the details of which rules can be agreed in which areas “will probably depend a lot on the discussion.”
“It is important that the discussion does not start from the other end, as it probably has been until now, when the discussion is mainly about how to share people who have already crossed the border,” said the prime minister.
This year, more than 4 thousand people entered Lithuania illegally. migrants.
Vilnius accuses the Minsk regime of organizing migration flows and calls it hybrid aggression. As a result, a state of emergency has been declared in the country.
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