The European Union decides to sanction Turkey  

European Union leaders meeting at a summit in Brussels decided on the night of Thursday 10 to Friday 11 December to sanction "illegal and aggressive" Turkish actions in the Eastern Mediterranean.  

Following the compromise on the recovery plan reached with Poland and Hungary, the 27 reached agreement on Turkey at the EU summit. After bitter talks concluded shortly before 1am (Paris time), the Europeans overcame their divisions to sanction Turkey for its gas exploration work in the maritime areas in dispute with Greece and Cyprus, according to various diplomatic sources.  

"The measures decided are individual sanctions, and additional measures can be decided if Turkey continues with its actions," explained one European diplomat. A list of names will be drawn up in the coming weeks and submitted to the Member States for approval, in accordance with the conclusions adopted by the summit of the 27 in Brussels.   

The names will be included on the black list drawn up in November 2019 to sanction Turkey's drilling activities in the waters off Cyprus. The list includes two officials from the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO), which has been banned from issuing visas and whose assets in the EU have been frozen, according to Afp.   

"The European Council has adopted sanctions against Turkey's 'unilateral actions and provocations," French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune wrote on his Twitter account. 

At the summit on 1 October, the heads of state and government committed themselves to reviewing the state of relations with Turkey and to applying new sanctions if Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government did not ease tensions with the EU, especially with Greece and Cyprus. The commitment was to be able to give Ankara a chance to build a positive agenda over the coming months.  

"We communicated with Turkey in October and since then things have not been very positive," said European Council President Charles Michel earlier this week. "We are ready to use the means at our disposal when we see that there are no positive developments," he warned. However, several Member States, including Germany, are opposed to the adoption of these sanctions.  

Furthermore, the conclusions of the summit that European leaders have been holding since yesterday in Brussels, call on the High Representative for the European Union's Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, and the European Commission to study the possibility, between now and March, of extending the scope of these sanctions, depending on how the relationship with Ankara progresses. The Commission should "report by March 2021 on developments" and then propose, if necessary, that the sanctions be extended to new names or companies. "The idea is to tighten the screw gradually," explained one European diplomat.  

 However, they avoid more drastic measures such as carrying out an arms embargo, as requested by Greece, and stress that "the offer of a positive agenda between the EU and Turkey is still on the table", according to Efe.  

Nevertheless, the EU-27 reiterate their support for Cyprus and condemn Erdogan's recent visit to the Varosha neighbourhood in the north of the country and the decision of the Turkish Cypriot authorities to reopen the area, which has been established as a military zone for 46 years and is considered key to this conflict.  

Erdogan said in a press conference in Ankara yesterday before he left on an official visit to Azerbaijan that "Any decision of EU sanctions is not a big concern for Turkey". He added that "The EU has always applied sanctions against Turkey anyway. It has never been honest with us, it has never fulfilled its promises".