The latest European Commission report on Turkey cites multiple reasons that led to deterioration of bilateral relations including its involvement in Libya.
It points out that Turkey’s military support to Libya, including the deployment of foreign fighters on the ground, and its persistent criticism and lack of cooperation with Operation IRINI are detrimental to the EU’s effective contribution to the implementation of the UN arms embargo and have led to conflicting approaches to Libya.
The Commission’s report also refers to the illegal Turkey-Libya memorandum. “Turkey has continued to confirm the validity of the 2019 Turkey-Libya Maritime Delimitation Agreement, which the EU considers to be a violation of the sovereign rights of third States, which does not comply with the Law of the Sea and has no legal consequences for third States,” the report stated.
As regards Turkey’s foreign policy in general, the Commission underlines that its “unilateral foreign policy” has continued to contradict EU priorities in the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), in particular due to its military action in Syria and Iraq and its lack of alignment with EU restrictive measures against Russia.