Image: Martti Kainulainen / Lehtikuva

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä expressed reservations over the idea of a common European border and coastal guard at this week's Salzburg summit, where EU heads of state and government are gathering for an informal meeting to discuss internal security, migration, and Brexit.

According to Sipilä, the idea needs to be carefully examined as it's still unclear what kind of authority would be allocated to the force.

Finland to supply 170 border guards

The commission’s proposal for a 10,000-worker strong European border and coast guard has already received criticism: Sipilä says that border control is each country’s individual responsibility and that there are still many ”open questions” in the EU proposal.

”Now we should calmly look at whether we can strengthen member countries' own border control and what the true role of these troops would be,” he said.

Establishing a common European border and coast guard would require Finland to commit a number of guards to the European initiative. Earlier this week, the Finnish Border Guard told STT news agency that it estimated it would need to hire and train more guards so that Finland would be able to provide the up to 170 border guards that have been requested for the unified EU force.

The PM said that Finland is still considering its stance on the EU proposal for founding a European Border and Coast Guard.

Egypt as boarding centre?

Egypt is one potential country outside the European Union where the EU could establish a centre for refugees who have been rescued from perilous sea.

In the summer, the EU countries agreed that they would establish a so-called boarding or refugee centre outside of the EU.



Last weekend Sebastian Kurz, Chancellor of Austria, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Council, and Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, met with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Kurz and Tusk are expected to tell the other EU leaders at this week's summit what type of cooperation the EU might undertake with Egypt.

