The President stressed that the hybrid attack against Lithuania and the EU by the Belarus regime was making the EU to review its legislation on migration, asylum policy, and border protection.
“The EU institutions and the EU Member States need to have the tools to respond rapidly to the attacks of hybrid nature by effectively countering illegal border crossings, increasing the EU’s capacity to return irregular migrants to the countries of origin, accepting asylum applications only at border crossing points and diplomatic representations, as well as making effective use of the EU programs to strengthen border controls,” the President said.
According to Gitanas Nausėda, changes in the EU legislation are necessary to prevent undemocratic regimes from manipulating the EU asylum policy. The President informed that he was planning to raise these issues at the European Council in October.
At the meeting, some time was also dedicated to the containment of the Covid-19 pandemic. The President underscored that vaccination was now Lithuania’s priority. This week, after the 70 per cent vaccination rate has been reached, all organizational and communication efforts will be further employed to keep up the vaccination pace.
The President underlined that Lithuania was in favour of providing EU vaccine support, especially to the Eastern Partnership countries.