France, EU lawmakers push for sanctions on Turkey next month

Brussels/Paris, November 26

France is main a push for European Union sanctions on Turkey subsequent month to comply with via on a menace made by the bloc in October, however has but to win assist from EU governments past Greece and Cyprus, officers and diplomats mentioned.

Paris says Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has not heeded EU leaders’ warnings on October 1 to again down in a dispute over fuel exploration within the Mediterranean or face penalties.

The European Parliament on Thursday is anticipated to name for sanctions, decrying Erdogan’s go to earlier this month to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of the island of Cyprus.

“Turkey knows what it needs to do,” France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian advised a French parliamentary listening to this week. “Confrontation or collaboration, it’s up to them.”

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has criticised the EU for discussing sanctions, saying such debate was not useful.

No detailed sanctions have been drawn up by France, however diplomats say any measures would hit areas of Turkey’s financial system aimed toward limiting Turkish hydrocarbon exploration, doubtless in delivery, banking and power.

Also at stake are a plan to broaden Turkey’s commerce preferences with the EU, its high buying and selling companion, and its formal standing a candidate to hitch the EU, which Austria says ought to finish.

Erdogan has known as for a boycott of French items, which one EU diplomat mentioned didn’t bode nicely for deeper commerce relations.

“However, Turkey is a key partner in many areas, so there’s no consensus in the Council (of EU governments). It is still too early,” mentioned one other EU diplomat.

France can be at odds with Turkey over the Nagorno-Karabakh battle. Paris has accused Ankara of fuelling the disaster within the Caucusus, a cost it rejects.

Turkey, a member of NATO, has slid in direction of authoritarianism, undermining EU priorities in Syria and Libya, however stays a strategically positioned companion that the EU can not ignore.

Support for any sanctions lie with Germany, which holds the EU’s six-month presidency. Berlin put its hopes in mediating between Greece and Turkey however was angered when Ankara, which withdrew an exploration vessel earlier than EU leaders met in October, started exploring for fuel off Cyprus once more final month.

“Erdogan really went too far with the Germans,” a senior French official advised Reuters. “They didn’t take at all well the new ship going back to the eastern Mediterranean just after the October 1 summit.”

A brand new spat between Germany and Turkey over the interception of a Turkish vessel within the Mediterranean this week has worsened already deteriorating EU-Turkey ties. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu mentioned the boarding was an act of “piracy” and summoned EU, German and Italian envoys to protest, which Berlin mentioned was unjustified.

“I think now there’s a common understanding that there will be sanctions,” mentioned a senior EU diplomat. “The question is what the market will bear.” Reuters