Why Donald Tusk Wants to Be the EU’s Gatekeeper

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk is emerging as the EU’s chief gatekeeper — pitching security across the bloc’s eastern flank as a priority in the run-up to European Parliamentary elections in the country on June 9. The war in Ukraine, now well into its third year, is sparking fears that Russia will try to exploit Europe’s vulnerability through coordinated disinformation campaigns and by weaponizing migrant flows from Belarus. Tusk’s pro-security message holds weight for people living along Poland’s 400-kilometer border with the country, where Europe’s last primeval forest became the scene of attempts by tens of thousands of undocumented migrants to cross into the EU in late 2021.