On Friday 23 February, European Council President Donald Tusk stated that the European leaders "will assess at our March European Council (on 22-23 March) whether the conditions are there to hold the Leaders' Meeting with Turkey in Varna on 26 March" – a meeting that was announced on 6 February (see EUROPE 11956).
This announcement comes at the end of the informal summit of the EU27, during which President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras informed their colleagues of the latest developments on Turkey's illegal violations in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Aegean Sea (see EUROPE 11960).
Tusk told press that he called on Ankara to stop its activities "urgently", as they "contradict Turkey's commitment to good neighbourly relations and their normalisation with all member states".
Tusk also reiterated the solidarity of "all the member states" towards Cyprus and Greece and their support for the sovereign right of the Republic of Cyprus "to explore and exploit its natural resources, in accordance with EU and international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)