Debate: Preparation of the Special European Council, focusing on the dangerous escalation and the role of Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean
Date: TUESDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2020
Speaker: Josep Borrell Fontelles
Language: EN

This debate is very timely. I have to say that tensions have been continuing to rise over the summer. I’ve spent the last few months, including the summer, trying to facilitate de-escalation efforts, but the least I can say is that more efforts are needed; this is the softest way of saying that the situation has not been improving. And the latest move by Turkey to discontinue seismic exploration in the continental shelf of Greece is a step in the right direction and gives us some hope that it will lead to further steps towards dialogue because, as the Presidency said, we are not going to solve it by military means, but through dialogue and negotiations.  European Union and Turkey relations were at the forefront of an extraordinary Foreign Ministers discussion at the meeting that we held in the middle of August, 14 August, and of our Gymnich meeting at the beginning of September, and we will continue next week at Monday’s Foreign Affairs Council and then the European Council at the end of the month.  All that is good and needed because the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean requires urgent and collective engagement. What has been happening during the summer are unacceptable events. Turkey has to refrain from taking unilateral actions and this is a basic element to allow the dialogue to advance, or rather, to start, and the position of the Foreign Affairs Ministers Council has always been very clear: to defend the European Union’s interests and stand in full solidarity with Greece and Cyprus. Immediate de-escalation is essential to allow the resumption of dialogue and negotiation, which is the only path towards stability and lasting solutions.  My colleagues, the European Union Foreign Ministers, were very clear about the possible consequences in the absence of progress in engaging with Turkey, and the European Council will consider this in the light of the most recent developments by the time they meet. There is still some days. The reaching-out continues, hoping that the European Council will be able to develop a constructive approach to our relations with Turkey which are – I can say firmly – at a watershed moment in history. The world will go one side or the other, depending on what’s going to happen in the next few days.  I therefore ask you to support my efforts and the efforts of the Council to create the urgently needed space to work with the Turkish leadership to achieve a de-escalation that will allow the pursuit of lasting solutions to the underlying problems of today’s crisis. Anything else would also undermine the perspective for the resumption of talks on a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem that the United Nations are ready to restart after the election of the Turkish community in Cyprus in October. I’ve been talking with the Secretary-General of the United Nations about it and I think that we need to push for the resumption of these talks. The EU and I, as High Representative, will continue to do everything we can to support the efforts to achieve this comprehensive settlement under United Nations auspices, in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and in line with the principles on which we have founded our  In terms of domestic developments in Turkey, we perceive a worrying backsliding in the area of rule of law and fundamental freedoms that continues to raise our concerns. We still fail to see Turkey delivering on its promises to take effective measures on a strengthening the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. Turkey’s serious backsliding away from European Union values and reforms and tense relations with several Member States led the Council to decide in 2018 on a stand-still of the accession negotiation and suspension of work on modernising the Customs Union. These were commitments that we took with Turkey under the 2016 agreement, but in 2018 the Council decided to stand still on these negotiations and on suspension of the work on modernising the customs union. With the serious developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and Turkish foreign policy actions in the region since last fall, things have become even more worrying and complex, and as I said, this is a watershed moment in the history of our relations with Turkey.  It’s clear that solutions will not come from an increasingly confrontational relationship. We don’t want it, we don’t look for it. Turkey is an important neighbour for the European Union, and we are not going to change geography. It will remain so. It’s a key partner in many areas, migration, for example. It is going to be difficult to believe that we can solve the migration flows without the help of Turkey both in the Eastern Mediterranean and now with the Libyan crisis in the Central Mediterranean. Turkey is an accession candidate, and a large majority of this population embraces our values and looks to the European Union as a societal model. But it’s clear that the developments in Turkey and Turkey’s action in the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond put into question how our relations will develop in the future, and we have to look for an answer to these questions urgently.  I strongly believe in the need for a solid relationship anchored in a common agenda of partnership that respects mutual interest and is based on values, but this requires us to look at the full relationship in a comprehensive way. I think that this discussion will help us to advance in this direction.