Giannis Maniatis, vice president of the European Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and head of PASOK’s delegation in the European Parliament, made a sharp intervention in the Parliament. Speaking very directly to Raffaele Fitto, executive vice president of the European Commission and special representative for Cyprus, he demanded an end to the policy of theoretical European declarations and called for concrete actions to be adopted immediately against Turkey’s escalating provocations.
The Greek MEP presented official data showing the scale of Turkish pressure in the region. Through July of this year, Turkish forces committed nearly 2,000 violations of Greek territorial waters, while hundreds of violations of Greece’s national airspace were also recorded during the same period.
This behavior has already caused serious problems for key European projects. Turkish threats within Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) have kept the construction of the undersea power cable that will connect Greece and Cyprus on hold.
The situation is becoming even more complicated as Ankara moves quickly ahead with its plans. Maniatis warned about the upcoming ratification by the Turkish parliament of the revisionist “Blue Homeland” doctrine, which seeks to legitimize illegal claims against Greek and Cypriot sovereignty.
Maniatis also called on Fitto, as special representative for the Cyprus issue, to respond to the recent start of construction on a natural gas pipeline that will directly connect Turkey with the occupied areas of Cyprus. He said this move undermines every effort to resolve the Cyprus issue.
Strongly criticizing the Commission’s standard response that “the EU remains committed to defending its interests,” the PASOK MEP pressed the commissioner to take responsibility. He asked for clarification on what this “European commitment” actually means in practice and called on the European Commission to immediately propose targeted sanctions against Turkey.
He concluded by asking whether the EU intends to permanently exclude Turkey from any future participation in the European defense architecture, stressing that the time has come for Europe to show its teeth.
