The European Union must strengthen visa controls and border guards to prevent Russian spies from entering the Schengen area, European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said on Friday in Athens during a border control conference, AFP and Agerpres reported.

The European Commissioner noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin “also wants to destroy the European Union… We are a threat to him, we have democracy, freedom, prosperity.”

“We need tighter controls on visa applications and more security at our borders,” she added.

The new information exchange system in the Schengen area should enter into force on March 7, Ylva Johansson said, estimating that Romania and Bulgaria should also be included in the Schengen area this year to facilitate the exchange of information on the ground. police.

“Today, only half of those who enter the European Union with a visa are checked by the Schengen information exchange system. This means that we have many Russians who are not checked,” she explained.

Biometric checks are needed in case agents use fake passports, a European official argued, noting that around 400 Russian spies were expelled from the EU last year.

Faced with this need to strengthen border control and use new technologies, the EU commissioner estimated that the current European budget of “€6.6 billion for border protection is not enough”.

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