The European Commission has provided Lithuania with €15.4 million to modernize its electronic border surveillance systems. Lithuania will upgrade them at four border crossing points on the border with Russia.
This is reported by LRT.
Work is planned to begin next year and be completed by 2027.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the systems will be updated at the Rociškės border station (22.4 km section), Vištitis border station (34.4 km), Vėšvile border station (30.6 km) and Plaškiai border station (25.9 km).
Lithuania also requested money from the EU for nine other border crossings, but the bloc did not approve the remaining applications.
The Commission has placed these applications on a reserve list and will allocate funding when additional funds become available.
- This is not the first time that countries have reinforced their borders with Russia and Belarus. In January of this year, the Estonian Ministry of Defense announced that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania would create a joint defense line on the border with Russia to “deter, and if necessary, defend against a military threat.”
- In August, Lithuania began building a military base near the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and 20 kilometers from the border with Russia-ally Belarus. Poland began building a line of defensive fortifications, dubbed the "Eastern Shield," on its border with Russia.
- In December of this year, the European Union allocated €170 million for anti-drone protection to five countries in the bloc bordering Russia and Belarus: Norway, Finland, Poland, Latvia, and Estonia.
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