Mitsotakis Calls on EU to Develop New Defences Against Migration Used as Political Weapon
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has urged the European Union to go beyond its existing legal and operational frameworks to confront what he describes as the deliberate use of migrant flows as a tool of geopolitical coercion, arguing that the bloc’s current rulebook was never designed to handle such scenarios.
Speaking in remarks reported by European media, Mitsotakis made the case that conventional asylum procedures and border management instruments fall short when hostile state or non-state actors deliberately channel people across borders as a form of hybrid pressure. The Greek leader’s comments reflect a growing frustration among frontline EU member states that existing mechanisms leave them exposed to tactics that blur the line between humanitarian crisis and security threat.
Greece has long positioned itself at the centre of debates over irregular migration into Europe, given its geographic exposure along the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean routes. Athens has faced repeated surges in arrivals, some of which Greek officials have attributed in part to deliberate facilitation by neighbouring governments seeking political leverage over Brussels or individual member states.
Pressure Mounts for a Revised European Approach
The broader context for Mitsotakis’s intervention is a European policy landscape still adjusting to the adoption of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, a landmark reform package that took years to negotiate. Critics, including several governments on the EU’s eastern and southern flanks, argue that even the reformed framework does not adequately account for situations where migration is instrumentalised as a coercive tool rather than driven purely by humanitarian circumstances.
According to reports, the Greek prime minister is pushing for the development of dedicated instruments — potentially including faster border procedures, stronger external deterrence mechanisms, and clearer legal grounds for responding to state-sponsored migration pressure — that would sit alongside or within the existing EU architecture. The precise form such tools might take remains a matter of ongoing discussion among member states and European institutions.
The issue carries particular resonance in light of events in recent years, including the 2021 crisis on the Belarus-Poland border, where Minsk was widely accused of engineering migrant crossings in retaliation for EU sanctions. That episode accelerated calls from several capitals for the EU to formally recognise weaponised migration as a distinct category requiring a distinct policy response.
Officials in Brussels have acknowledged the complexity of the challenge, noting the inherent tension between maintaining robust asylum rights under international law and equipping member states with the tools to resist deliberate exploitation of those rights by hostile actors. Finding a legal and political balance that satisfies both humanitarian obligations and security imperatives is expected to remain a contentious topic as European leaders continue to debate the future direction of EU border and migration policy.
Mitsotakis’s push adds to a chorus of voices from governments across the EU’s periphery seeking a harder-edged approach, and is likely to feature prominently in forthcoming European Council discussions as the new European Commission sets out its priorities for the years ahead.
