The discussion followed a recent explosion on a railway line in eastern Poland, which Warsaw has described as an act of Russian-backed sabotage, and a series of incursions by drones launched from Russia into the skies of several member states.
Opening the debate, European Commission Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu said that strengthening Europe’s ability to react to “hybrid threats” is now a priority for the European Commission, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The term “hybrid threats” is used in Brussels for hostile activity that mixes cyberattacks, sabotage, disinformation campaigns and military pressure.
Mînzatu noted that in recent weeks drones or aircraft had violated airspace over Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania and Latvia.
“These incidents follow a pattern, they are not an accident. They are part of hybrid warfare,” she told lawmakers.
She added that investigations into each case must continue and that once responsibility is established, it should be made public.
Mînzatu said the EU must strengthen its deterrence capabilities, in particular against drones, which are cheap to deploy but can force governments to mount very costly defenses.
She said the bloc urgently needs scalable and affordable systems adapted to the needs of member states, and pointed to the planned European Drone Defence Initiative, which aims to create an advanced, EU-wide system to detect and neutralize hostile drones and is expected to be operational by the end of 2027.
The debate was formally titled “EU response to continuous violations of EU airspace and sabotage of critical infrastructure in the EU by Russia and Belarus.”
The session was requested by Polish lawmakers from both the governing Civic Coalition and the opposition Law and Justice party, following the recent blast that damaged tracks on the Warsaw-–Lublin line as well as earlier drone incidents.
Dariusz Joński from the centrist Civic Coalition said that by violating airspace and attacking infrastructure on which the safety of Poland and the whole European Union depends, Russia and Belarus were “testing whether Europe is strong and united.”
“These are not provocations, they are a test of our resilience,” he told the chamber.
He said the EU was reinforcing protection on its eastern flank, reacting jointly and using sanctions where they can hurt the aggressor most, and stressed that Europe “will not be intimidated” and “will not be a soft target.”
Former interior minister Mariusz Kamiński of Law and Justice argued that Russia is deliberately trying to create fear and chaos and that this method has been used consistently since Soviet times.
He said Russian special services have for months been organizing “terrorist activities” on EU territory, targeting critical infrastructure such as airports, and warned that “we are one step away from the deaths of our citizens.”
Kamiński said Belarus, under the rule of Alexander Lukashenko, has become a staging ground for Russian intelligence officers and saboteurs, and called for tougher EU measures.
He urged the European Commission to use its powers to place both Russia and Belarus on the EU list of high-risk countries for money laundering and terrorist financing.
He also proposed that the Commission, together with the European Council, work out a procedure to compensate damage caused by sabotage using frozen Russian assets that were blocked after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In addition, he said the EU should suspend visa regimes with Russia and Belarus and close border crossings on the bloc’s external frontiers with both countries.
Michał Kobosko of the centrist Poland 2050 party also appealed for a joint European response to Russian hybrid attacks.
He told the Parliament that any attack, even a small one, on Poland, Lithuania or Estonia should be treated as an attack on the whole European community.
He said Moscow’s goal is to frighten Europeans and push public opinion towards ending support for Ukraine.
Krzysztof Śmiszek from the Left alliance cited an estimate by Poland’s digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski that cyberattacks in Poland, including those targeting critical infrastructure, could reach 100,000 this year.
Śmiszek accused the far right in Europe of acting in the Kremlin’s interests, saying that “the Kremlin, as always, uses the mindless and ‘useful idiots,’” using a phrase often applied to people seen as advancing Russia’s agenda inside Western politics.
Anna Bryłka, an MEP from the far-right Confederation alliance, said the EU must “speak with one voice” on continuing airspace violations and sabotage, but insisted that any response should be based on the sovereignty of member states rather than further concentration of power in Brussels.
On Thursday, on the sidelines of the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, the Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is due to meet behind closed doors.
Members decided that, in light of the recent acts of sabotage in Poland, the session, which focuses on security and defense policy, will not be open to the public.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP