East Med crisis on EU leaders’ dinner menu

The EU27 summit dinner on Thursday will be entirely devoted to Eastern Mediterranean crisis and relations with Turkey, President of the European Council Charles Michel announced.

He said the objective is “to create a space for a constructive dialogue with Turkey to achieve stability and security in the whole region and to ensure full respect for the sovereignty and sovereign rights of all EU Member States”.

“This will only be possible if Turkey engages constructively…all options remain on the table to defend the legitimate interests of the EU and its Member States”

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades will be attending the summit to push for sanctions agai9nst Turkey as it is illegally drilling inside Cyprus waters.

Nicosia is blocking sanctions against Belarus for election fraud if there is no movement to punish Turkey for its activity in the region.

Belarus, China, the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the Nagorno-Karabakh escalation will also be hot topics during the two-day summit in Brussels.

But Michel said the dinner “will be entirely devoted to the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and our relations with Turkey”.

On Friday EU leaders will also address digital transformation in the European economy at a time of COVID.

“The EU can only be strong on the international stage if it has a resilient and innovative economic base.
COVID-19 has undoubtedly revealed some of the EU`s weaknesses,” said Michel.

“Against this backdrop, we will have an in-depth discussion on Friday morning on unlocking the full potential of the Single Market, developing an ambitious industrial policy and exploiting the opportunities offered by the latest digital developments.

The exceptional recovery package, adopted in July, will help transform our economies and, along with the Green and Digital transitions, will support us achieve these ambitions.”