We, the committee chairs of our parliaments, strongly condemn the ongoing hybrid attack by the Lukashenko regime on the eastern borders of the European Union and NATO. In retaliation for existing EU sanctions, the illegally elected President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has helped to create an artificial migration route and is cynically using migrants in his attempts to destabilize Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and the entire European Union in order to force it to lift the sanctions imposed on his regime.

We appreciate the European Commission's efforts to find a response to the migrant crisis that has arisen at the external borders and to engage in talks with third countries in order to stem the flow of migrants to Belarus, from where they in turn are to be used as part of the Lukashenko regime's hybrid warfare tactics. Since the spring, we have watched the Lukashenko regime's escalating attack on the EU by orchestrating the increased flow of migrants to the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Polish borders with Belarus, and we have adapted. The recent escalation near the Polish-Belarusian border has changed the security situation, creating serious humanitarian and security problems for the EU. This calls for decisive and concerted action to counter the crisis.

Today, despite the international efforts of the democratic community and the work done to physically defend Europe's borders, thousands of illegal migrants are still planning or already on their way to Minsk to then attempt to illegally enter EU and NATO territories.

Let us assume that the regime and Belarus will not abide by their international obligations and commitments, will violate peace and security in Europe, and will continue to repress and exploit people who just want to live and enjoy freedom. In that case, we will continue to put pressure on Lukashenko and those who support his regime, and we will not limit our calls for accountability and will bring this problem to the attention of the international community.

Developments at the EU border point to the need to consider how best to adapt the existing legal framework to new realities, to enable us to respond appropriately to attempts to instrumentalize irregular migration for political purposes and other hybrid threats. No third party - be it a country or supranational groups - should be able to use the EU migration and asylum system to pressure and blackmail the EU and its Member States. We must respond with the right tools and resources to avoid the serious consequences of these hybrid attacks, rather than deal with them and the suffering and humiliation caused by the cynical use of human lives for political ends.

We call for the imposition of sanctions on all Belarusian airports and ask that Belarus be declared a no-fly zone, and therefore sanction all international airlines that violate this ban and continue to assist in the inhumane instrumentalization of illegal migration. Furthermore, if third country airlines continue to engage in these unlawful activities, the EU and its partners should impose sanctions on the airlines in question in their respective territories.

We call on our allies and our Western partners to take action to prevent Lukashenko's hybrid aggression and to investigate whether and to what extent third countries are involved in supporting the illegal activities of the Lukashenko regime. This requires taking appropriate measures to engage internationally to ensure that those who wish to attack Europe by exploiting human misfortune know that the border will be defended. The tragic plight of migrants at the border is part of Lukashenko's plan to distract, provoke and intimidate.

We reiterate the importance of rapidly adapting the EU legal framework and developing tools backed by adequate financial support to ensure a robust response to the instrumentalization of irregular migration and other hybrid threats.

We call for a deeper investigation into the broader plans of which these hybrid tactics are a part, and to consider who may be involved and why in artificially creating a crisis by stoking fear and inciting political and social unrest through such tactics, thus undermining the legitimacy and thus the stability of the EU and NATO. We encourage talks at the highest level. We would support the engagement of the United Nations Security Council on the tactics of using migration as a weapon and hybrid warfare at the external border of the European Union and NATO.

We call for an international trial with universal jurisdiction to convict Alexander Lukashenko and members of his regime personally for crimes committed against the Belarusian people on a massive scale, and we call for consideration of bringing the case of Belarus to the International Court of Justice on the basis of violations of the Chicago Convention, the Montreal Convention and the UN Convention against Torture committed by the Lukashenko regime.

There is a need for a systemic, coordinated response that increases our resilience, a tightly focused economic and diplomatic effort on the part of the EU to deter any attempt to target the bloc, and there is an urgent need to develop countermeasures to deter future provocations or attempts to sow distrust and discord among us.