Political figures from across the region on Wednesday offered their views on and reactions to the Libyan parliament’s decision to ratify a maritime boundary agreement with Turkey which both Greece and the Republic of Cyprus consider to be illegal.
Turkish Cypriot ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu told the Cyprus Mail that the Libyan parliament’s decision is “great news”, and added that “after all, not everyone is a puppet of discrimination and blatant misinformation”.
Meanwhile, the day’s plenary session at the European Parliament began with an intervention from Greek member Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi, who belongs to the country’s ruling New Democracy party, and who condemned the agreement’s ratification.
“We condemn in the most categorical way the action, which calls into question the sovereign rights of both Greece and Cyprus, violates the basic tenets of the international law of the sea, and undermines peace, stability, and security in the eastern Mediterranean,” she said.
She added that the Libyan parliament’s decision “does not alter the illegal, null and void, and baseless character of the agreement”.
“Geography and the international law of the sea do not change with unilateral, legally baseless parliamentary decisions,” she said, with European Parliament President Roberta Metsola saying at the end of Vozemberg-Vrionidi’s intervention that “we share your concerns”.
Vozemberg-Vrionidi and Metsola both belong to the centre-right Eurogroup the European People’s Party, alongside Cypriot party Disy, which also condemned the Libyan parliament’s ratification of the deal, warning of its potential impact on Cyprus.
“The development … directly concerns the Republic of Cyprus. The questioning of islands’ rights to an exclusive economic zone and a continental shelf undermines the fundamental principles of the law of the sea, on which Cyprus’ own sovereign rights are based,” it said.
Costa, von der Leyen ‘deeply regret’ Libya’s ratification
It also said that it welcomes the position taken by both European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday night, saying that their joint statement “confirms that the illegal … agreement cannot create a fait accompli to the detriment of Greece’s sovereignty rights”.
Costa and von der Leyen had said that they “deeply regret” the Libyan parliament’s ratification of the deal, which, they said, “infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states”, “does not comply with the law of the sea”, and “is null and void”.
“We reaffirm our solidarity with Greece and Cyprus. We reiterate the EU’s well-known position against any outside interference in Libya,” they said.
This statement drew reactions from Turkey, where opposition Yeni Party leader Ozgur Ozel said his “rejects” the European leaders’ position.
“Turkey and Libya are two sovereign states. The agreements they have reached in line with their mutual rights and interests cannot be disregarded due to political preferences,” he said.
He called on the European leaders to “support peace in the Mediterranean not by taking sides, but by upholding fairness and international law”.
“Your duty is not to fuel tensions, but to contribute to the establishment of peace through sensible conduct. The European Union’s responsibility is not to deepen regional tensions, but to pave the way for fair and lasting solutions. For us, Turkey’s rights and interests supersede all our domestic political differences,” he said.
Agreement sets out Turkish, Libyan claims to EEZs
The agreement saw Turkey and Libya define where the two countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) border one another in the eastern Mediterranean, with that border, according to the agreement, falling between two points southeast of the Greek island of Crete.
Turkey had signed an agreement with the Libyan government of national accord in 2019, but it had not until Tuesday been ratified by Libya’s legislature. The government of national unity superseded the government of national accord in 2021 and is now the sole internationally recognised government of Libya.
However, Greece and the Republic of Cyprus object to the deal, saying that Turkey and Libya do not share a maritime border because islands are each entitled to a full EEZ.
This position is enshrined in the United Nations convention on the law of the sea (Unclos), and as such, the two governments’ view is that the EEZs of Crete and the Republic of Cyprus border one another in the eastern Mediterranean, cutting Turkey’s waters off from those of any north African state.
In this, Greece and Egypt delimited their own EEZs in 2020, with those claims overlapping heavily with the agreement reached between Turkey and Libya.
Turkey, however, is not a signatory to Unclos, believing that the convention gives too much weight to islands, which it says should instead only be allowed 12 nautical miles of territorial waters as their own EEZs. Libya, meanwhile, signed Unclos in 1984 but did not ratify it.