Migrants in a dinghy paddle their way on the Mediterranean Sea to attempt crossing to the Greek island of Kos as a Turkish Coast Guard ship patrols off the shores off Bodrum Sept 19, 2015. Reuters/Umit Bektas
The European Union will examine retaliatory measures against Turkey over its drilling activities in the southeastern Mediterranean, in a move that risks pushing relations between Ankara and Brussels to a new low.
At a meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday, EU ministers invited the bloc’s executive and foreign policy arms "to submit options for appropriate measures without delay,” according to people familiar with the decision, who asked not to be identified discussing the private deliberations. The move could pave the way for targeted sanctions against companies and individuals involved in the drilling activities, the people said.
Governments also reiterated that talks on upgrading an EU-Turkey customs deal and on the Turkish accession to the bloc are frozen, according to a draft of the decision seen by Bloomberg.
Turkey and Cyprus are at loggerheads over offshore gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, as Ankara disputes Nicosia’s claims that the area is its exclusive economic zone. Turkey has sent exploration vessels into the area, with Cyprus protesting the move as a violation of its sovereignty and threatening to issue arrest warrants against those involved.
The dispute adds to a series of disagreements between Western governments and Turkey in areas ranging from democratic standards to Ankara’s decision to purchase Russian defense missiles, which could allegedly compromise NATO systems. In Tuesday’s decision, EU governments said that "Turkey continues to move further away from the European Union.”
