Cyprus, together with France and Greece, but also with the support of some other Member States, submitted to the Council, according to information from KYPE, proposals for new entries in the list of restrictive measures for illegal Turkish drilling in the Cypriot EEZ.
The discussion of the proposals will take place in the Relex working group of the Council next Thursday at 14:30.
Earlier, French Foreign Minister Clement Bonn, who briefed a group of journalists in Brussels, noted that there was a political debate on improving France-Turkey relations, but no specific visit or meeting was planned on the issue. As he explained, what France wants is “to stick to the process of European unity set out in the last council”.
As he stressed, the conclusions of the Summit provided for sanctions under the current regime in the Eastern Mediterranean, ie the addition to the list of sanctions for illegal Turkish drilling in the Cypriot EEZ. France insists on expanding this list, he noted.
“This is a very important policy project to implement and the experts are working on what will happen in the coming weeks and days,” he said, “because it is a matter of credibility,” he said. “It is also a fruit of European stability.”
He added that “we see some signals, some public statements from Turkey, more constructive. We accept them, but we also saw how it worked in the past,” the minister said.
“The French have always said that they will react as Europeans to these various challenges. If the Turks stop the challenges, France is ready to continue the dialogue within Europe. But this is basically the choice of the Turks. So we will see in “A report requested by the Summit from Borrell, where it will give a full assessment of Turkey's overall behavior on the various fronts and on this basis decide a new stance,” he concluded.
