A neighboring country of Russia wants the EU to become a military power. “It's time to show solidarity when we talk about security”
Finland Prime Minister Petteri Orpo Photo: Thomas Traasdahl / AFP / Profimedia
The European Union should get unprecedented powers to defend itself against growing threats from Russia, said Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Politico reports.
In an interview given before the EU informal summit in Copenhagen, Orpo said that the European Union should act as “a real union” when it comes to confrontation with hostile states.
“We need the common EU capabilities – so we need EU financing and EU cooperation. We have shown solidarity in the last two decades, for example, during the Covid pandemic, in the economy.
According to him, leaders of all EU states should be aware that the eastern flank “is our common border” and that no one is safe in the face of Moscow strategies.
The presence of several drones in the Copenhagen Airport area caused passenger aircraft to stay on the ground for a few hours, just a few days before the EU high level meeting.
“These incidents, these attacks are against the whole of Europe. Whoever follows? Denmark is not a border country, so we can see that this is possible everywhere in Europe,” stressed Finland.
Orpo wanted to specify that a consolidation of EU defense does not mean NATO replacement. “We trust NATO, this is clear. The European Union can do more to help countries and support NATO, for example to increase the defense industry, which is needed. Without a stronger defense industry, our defense cannot be more solid,” he explained.
At the end of last year, the Helsinki government accused Russia of orchestrating an influx of migrants at the common border, where in the autumn of 2023 – the year when Finland joined NATO – around 1,000 clandestine migrants arrived. According to Petteri Orpo, the security of the border with Russia “is an existential issue for Finland and the other countries in the EU and NATO.”
