The EU27 discussion on migration lasted almost 5 hours on Friday 22 October, but the twelve Member States that had asked the Commission to consider EU funding for anti-migrant walls at their external borders (see EUROPE B12808A8) did not win their case during this exchange, which was largely devoted to the so-called ‘hybrid’ threats posed by Belarus.
The President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, noted, at the end of the meeting, the existence of a long “tradition in the...