EU Will Not Fund 'Barbed Wire and Walls' on Borders, Von Der Leyen Says

© Sputnik / Viktor Tolochko / Go to the mediabankPolish border guards watch a refugee camp behind barbed wire installed on the border between Belarus and Poland near the village of Usnarz Dolny, Belarus
Polish border guards watch a refugee camp behind barbed wire installed on the border between Belarus and Poland near the village of Usnarz Dolny, Belarus - Sputnik International, 1920, 22.10.2021
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MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - The European Union will not fund creating fences or walls at external borders of member states, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.
"There was a discussion on what is so called psychical infrastructure and I was very clear in the Commission and the EU parliament that there will be no funding for barbed wire and walls," von der Leyen told a press conference following the EU leader’s summit.
Earlier in the day, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said that the EU should discuss creating a physical fence on the border with Belarus amid the influx of migrants.
Last week, the lower house of the Polish parliament voted in favour of a government plan to spend some $400 million on erecting a wall on Poland's border with Belarus in a bid to curb the influx of migrants trying to cross. Warsaw has already deployed nearly 6,000 Polish soldiers to guard the border with Belarus amid the ongoing migration crisis, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said on Tuesday.
Warsaw began building a barbed wire fence along its border with Belarus to stem the illegal border crossings. Poland, along with Latvia and Lithuania, have reported a drastic increase in migrants from countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq illegally crossing their borders from Belarus. The EU has accused Minsk of waging a hybrid warfare in a bid to pressure Brussels over anti-Belarus sanctions, a claim the Alexander Lukashenko government has rejected.
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