According to the President, Europe has to deal in parallel with a number of serious challenges: manage illegal migration flows and ensure a smooth Brexit. The contribution of member states and their shared responsibility for the future of Europe is immensely important today.
Austria – which currently presides over the European Union – places special emphasis on the migration problem. The EU-Turkey agreement has significantly reduced the influx of illegal migrants, but Europe needs long-term solutions to keep the situation in check and European countries from reemerging as centers of gravity for irregular inflows.
The informal summit will review measures to improve the security of external borders, encourage closer cooperation with countries of origin and transit, offer asylum options as near as possible to the zones of conflict, and speed up the return of economic migrants.
Lithuania has repeatedly received EU support and therefore it contributes - as much as it can – to resolving issues of relevance for the whole Europe. More than 100 Lithuanian officers have been delegated to the European Border and Coast Guard Agency FRONTEX. Lithuania has put forward a proposal to introduce a single set of external border standards. It uses modern technologies to control a 1,070-kilometer EU borderline. However, border protection is inadequate in some member states – which gives illegal migrants easy access to the Schengen area. Lithuania's experience can serve as an example to strengthen EU border control.
Other difficult issues that the European leaders will address is a timely Brexit deal, guidelines for future EU-UK relations and a post-Brexit Irish-British border model. Finding a solution would prevent damaging consequences and secure the existing guarantees for people living in the United Kingdom.
The Saltzburg agenda also includes internal security, cooperation between intelligence and law enforcement bodies and deterrence of hybrid threats. Europe needs to have a united and adequate stance to the changing security environment and a joint response to such hybrid threats as cyber attacks, disinformation and terrorism.
