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The French president met the leaders of the EU countries in the Mediterranean in Ajaccio to give a coordinated response to the Turkish energy offensive
by Gerardo Pelosi
The French president met the leaders of the EU countries in the Mediterranean in Ajaccio to give a coordinated response to the Turkish energy offensive
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No useless tug of war with Erdogan, but the seven Euro-middle countries led by France are asking the Turkish authorities for a definitive “clarification”. Born in 2016 after the Greek crisis to respond to the rigorous recipes of northern Europe, the Euromed summit has been found, year after year, to face the serious instability of the Mediterranean between migratory flows and the Libyan crisis. Until today, when the seven are called upon to curb the geopolitical and economic ambitions of Turkish President Erdogan in the eastern Mediterranean.
The spectrum of sanctions
Time is running out and sanctions against Ankara are not ruled out. Heads of State and Government of the seven southern European EU countries debated it yesterday at the summit organized by French President Emmanuel Macron in Ajaccio, Corsica, which was also attended by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. In Porticcio, a seaside resort on the Gulf of Ajaccio, the leaders of the seven Med7 member countries, including Pedro Sánchez from Spain, Kyriakos Mitsotakis from Greece, Antonio Costa from Portugal, Nikos Anastasiades from Cyprus and Robert Abela from Maltese, made the point with Macron to avoid the risk of escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean. The objective is “to advance the consensus on the EU’s relationship with Turkey, with a view to the European summit on September 24 and 25” dedicated to this issue.
But it is a fact that the clash between Paris and Ankara, born from the ashes of the Libyan crisis, has now become a European issue. Even before the opening of the summit, the French president hoped that Europe “will have a more united and clear voice before Turkey, which is no longer a partner.” “We Europeans – warned Macron – we must be clear and determined with the government of President Erdogan that today has an inadmissible behavior and must clarify its intentions.” However, Macron does not rule out “restarting a productive dialogue with Turkey” if conditions arise.
Ankara responds to Macron
There was no shortage of the Turkish response to Macron with the Foreign Ministry that stigmatized the “arrogant statements with an old colonial reflex that endanger the interests of the European Union.” But Macron’s statements, the Turkish authorities add, “are actually a manifestation of his helplessness and despair.” Ankara claims to have thwarted “all of Macron’s insidious foreign policy plans and dirty games in the Mediterranean.” “It is not up to Macron – the Turkish sources add – to determine the maritime sovereignty of a Mediterranean country or of any other geographical area.”
Before the Med-7 summit, Macron had met separately with Greek Prime Minister Misotakis with whom he stopped to discuss the situation in the eastern Mediterranean and the behavior of the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan with regard to energy explorations deemed illegal by Greece and Cyprus. as well as Brussels.
