The European Commission (EC) has this week approved €17 million for Latvia to improve surveillance of the European Union’s (EU) eastern border. Latvia will use the funding to build smart infrastructure on the Latvian-Russian border, the Ministry of the Interior said December 13.
The EC decided this week to allocate €170 million to six border countries to improve border surveillance. Of this, Estonia will receive €19.4 million, Finland €50 million, Latvia €17 million, Lithuania €15.4 million, Poland €52 million and Norway €16.4 million.
Minister of the Interior Rihards Kozlovskis (New Unity) said that the €17 million allocated to Latvia from the EC funds would be used to build smart infrastructure on the 52.9 km section of the external Latvian-Russian border.
This infrastructure will make the work of the State Border Guard more efficient and the external border safer.
The Minister noted that the preparatory works for the construction of smart or technological infrastructure on the Latvian-Russian border are already underway with the allocated state budget funds for 2024-2026. The additional EC funding of €17 million will provide significant relief to the national budget.
It is planned that the entire Latvia-Russia and Latvia-Belarus external land borders will be equipped with smart infrastructure by the end of 2026.
Smart infrastructure consists of an electronic communications network (external utilities, electronic communications poles, towers or masts), external utilities for electricity supply, a presence detection system and surveillance equipment, as well as related infrastructure.
The EC has also established the right to restrict asylum for illegal immigrants who are used as tools by totalitarian regimes in Moscow and Minsk to destabilize the bloc.
