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The European Commissioners from Eastern Flank countries have urged Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to take urgent action over growing Russian threats to the Baltic states, including by creating a new high-level coordinator for the region.
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The proposed coordinator would provide a single point of contact for affected countries, coordinate EU efforts across different policy areas and signal stronger backing for the region.
The call comes amid growing concern among Nordic and eastern European countries bordering Russia — the EU’s so-called Eastern Flank — that Moscow could escalate its war in Ukraine, with consequences for the wider region.
In late July, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, and Commissioners Valdis Dombrovskis, Andrius Kubilius and Piotr Serafin wrote to von der Leyen urging additional measures, warning that mounting security challenges on the Eastern Flank are undermining the EU’s security as a whole.
They called for faster action on preparedness, including the ability to respond to infrastructure disruptions, strengthen regional stockpiles and counter hybrid threats.
The proposed coordinator would work with NATO and national authorities to identify gaps in civil preparedness and the protection of critical infrastructure and communities, with EU funding used to address urgent needs.
The Commissioners also called for the College of Commissioners to meet in one of the Baltic states this autumn, arguing that a visit would give EU leaders first-hand insight into the deterioration of regional security, public safety and economic conditions.
Concerns have been heightened by CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s recent visit to the region. Some media reports linked the trip to a warning to Moscow against attacking a NATO member, although former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves dismissed that interpretation, saying Russia’s calculations in the region had not changed.
The Commissioners are also calling for the Eastern Flank Watch initiative, aimed at countering hybrid threats along the EU’s eastern border, to be accelerated and given additional funding, amid increasingly frequent airspace violations and drone incursions.