State funds will be used, PM says, after Lithuania fails to get EU funding 'drone wall'

VILNIUS - As Lithuania and Estonia failed to receive EU funding for the so-called "drone wall" project, Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas says these issues will have to be dealt with at the national level and using state funds.

"Clearly, even in Brussels, we do not have the same view of what our EU member states are doing. And we can only regret that we will have to deal with these issues with the efforts and resources of our national states," he told reporters in Marijampole on Monday. "Europe is big, interests differ and sometimes what hurts us or is important to us is not important to Europe."

BNS reported earlier in the day that Lithuania and Estonia failed to secure EU funding for the so-called "drone wall" to protect their borders.

According to the Interior Ministry, drones and other innovative technologies are necessary for the State Border Guard Service's operations, given the changed regional security situation.

According to BNS, the funding application was rejected by Brussels in early March. Such a decision will force Lithuanian to look for other sources of funding, Rustamas Liubajevas, the SBGS commander, said earlier on Monday, adding that the project would first of all allow to exchange information as well as to detect and neutralize drones.

Last May, the then Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite unveiled plans by countries in the region to create a "drone wall". She told BNS at the time that countries would use unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor the border area, as well as anti-drone systems to stop drones from hostile countries being used for smuggling and provocations.