News

On August 15, the Nordic and Baltic Ministers responsible for foreign affairs and migration issues sent a joint letter to the Commissioner for Home Affairs of the European Commission, Ylva Johansson, regarding Hungary’s decision to extend the system of national cards to citizens of Russia and Belarus. In the letter, the Ministers expressed concern that this decision could seriously threaten the security of all European Union member states.

In a letter, the Ministers supported Commissioner Johansson’s request to the Hungarian Minister of the Interior, Sándor Pintér, to provide detailed answers by August 19 for the European Commission to be able to assess whether the national card scheme applied to citizens of Russia and Belarus complied with the European Union’s law and whether this Hungarian decision did not endanger the general functioning of the space without internal walls.

“It is, therefore, with concern that we follow the recent news regarding Hungary’s decision to extend its system of national cards for citizens of Russia and Belarus. Regardless of whether it falls under national or Union competence, we are worried that this decision may constitute a serious security risk to all member states.

We welcome your engagement on this issue. Hungary’s reply, your analysis and the next steps will be of the utmost importance in ensuring our national security,” the Nordic and Baltic Ministers wrote in the joint letter to Commissioner Johansson.

The Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) is an informal and non-institutionalized cooperation format that includes five Nordic and three Baltic states - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. The NB8 countries rotate each year to coordinate the NB8 activities. This year, Sweden is coordinating the NB8 cooperation.