Italy’s Meloni says the security threat posed by Russia has been overstated by Reuters

Written by Anne Kauranen

SAARISELKA, Finland (Reuters) – Russia poses a bigger threat to the security of the European Union than just security 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’s 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 problems in southern Europe.

“We have to understand that the threat is wider than we think,” Meloni, who leads a conservative government, told a news conference when asked about Russia.

The threat to the EU’s security from Russia or elsewhere will not stop once the war in Ukraine is over and the EU must prepare for that, he said.

“It’s about our democracy, it’s about influencing our public opinion, it’s about what’s happening in Africa, it’s about raw materials, it’s about migration tools. We need to know that it’s a very broad concept of security,” Meloni said.

He urged the EU to do more to protect its borders and not allow Russia or “any other criminal organization” to facilitate the flow of illegal migrants.

Other EU members including Finland and Estonia have accused Russia of allowing illegal immigrants from the Middle East and elsewhere to enter EU countries through Russia without proper checks, undermining EU security.

Moscow has denied that Russia is deliberately pushing illegal immigrants into the EU.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said maintaining his country’s 1,340-km (833 miles) border with Russia was an “existential question” for Finland and other EU members and NATO allies.

Meloni said that the EU was wrong when it dealt with the issue of immigration in the past years only in terms of burden sharing.

“Tackling the issue of illegal immigration as just a solidarity-based debate was a mistake,” he said. “The result is that we cannot protect our borders… We want to protect 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 had to deal with many challenges, Meloni said.

“Security also means critical infrastructure, it means artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, raw materials, supply chains. It means a new and effective foreign policy and cooperation, and mean to move,” he said.