Lithuania and Estonia have been denied EU funding for their proposed "drone wall" project to protect their borders, the Lithuanian Interior Ministry has said.
"Estonian and Lithuanian border authorities had submitted a joint application for EU funding to develop a so-called "drone wall" along the border, but the project was not granted funding," the ministry told BNS in a comment.
"Estonia was the main applicant and Lithuania was a partner," it added.
Lithuania’s Border Guard Service (VSAT) told BNS that Brussels rejected the funding application in early March.
Last May, Agnė Bilotaitė, the then interior minister, announced that countries in the region had agreed to develop a so-called "drone wall".
At the time, she told BNS that the initiative would involve using drones to monitor the border and deploying anti-drone systems. She did not say when the project might be implemented.
Alternative funding
Rustamas Liubajevas, the commander of VSAT, said it would seek other sources of funding.
"I don't see this as a big issue that the project wasn't selected for funding. I believe we can look for other sources to finance this project," Liubajevas told reporters.
"The project might be more focused on regional cooperation, creating a regional system," he added.
Liubajevas noted that the EU is funding other purchases related to unmanned aerial vehicles and anti-drone systems.
He said the EU has allocated 11 million euros to Lithuania for the purchase of drones, with 3 million euros earmarked for acquiring anti-drone equipment.
The VSAT commander said the "drone wall" project was primarily intended to facilitate information exchange between countries.
"This is a system that would, first of all, enable the exchange of information, the detection of drones, and their neutralisation. It was also planned to choose specific border sections in each country for pilot projects," he said.
The total value of the project was estimated at 12 million euros, with 4 million euros allocated to Estonia and about 2.5 million euros to each of the other participants.
Lithuanian Interior Minister Vladislav Kondratovič said that information exchange is now ensured through other means, though perhaps not as swiftly.
"Of course, additional funding would make certain processes faster, but as far as I know, the VSAT is carrying out purchases worth over 3 million euros [allocated for anti-drone systems]. This will strengthen border security, and we expect every unit to have drone protection soon," he said.
Kondratovič did not rule out reapplying for EU funding for the "drone wall" project. The minister also assured reporters that the project "isn't dead".
Meanwhile, Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas said state funds would be used to complete the project.
"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. "Europe is big, interests differ and sometimes what hurts us or is important to us is not important to Europe."
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