Bid to break deadlock over summit conclusions

The leaders of Greece, Cyprus, France and Germany were meeting with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen late Thursday in a bid to reach a compromise on the conclusions of an EU summit in Brussels regarding Turkey.

According to sources, Greek officials insist that a reference to a prospective talks between Athens and Ankara must be coupled with a warning that sanctions will be imposed against Turkey should it fail to take active steps toward a de-escalation of tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is against the idea of including a reference to possible sanctions, also on the grounds of NATO’s announcement earlier in  the day that Greece and Turkey have set up a mechanism (so-called deconfliction mechanism) to avoid accidental clashes in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Athens and Nicosia rejected a first draft that circulated at 6 p.m. local time. The Greek side requested several modifications so that the text would “more fully reflect Greek positions,” a government source said.

Speaking on state broadcaster ERT1, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said that Athens had rejected the draft because “it was not balanced.”