Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis delivered a joint statement for Greece, Egypt, Cyprus, Bahrain, the UAE and the EU rejecting the 2019 Turkey-Libya maritime memorandum after Libya's House of Representatives ratified it, Euronews reports.
Greece's foreign minister said on Monday, 26 October, that a 2019 maritime boundaries memorandum between Turkey and Libya "remains null and void", according to Euronews. Giorgos Gerapetritis delivered the position as a joint statement on behalf of Greece, Egypt, Cyprus, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union. It responded to the recent decision by Libya's House of Representatives to ratify the memorandum.
The statement said the document "runs counter to international law" and cannot serve as a lawful basis for delimiting maritime zones or produce legal consequences for third states. Gerapetritis pointed to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and customary international law as the legal framework, and argued that the memorandum ignores geographical reality and the rights of islands. He added that Libya's parliamentary vote "does not alter this legal reality" and warned that accepting such bilateral deals would set a dangerous precedent.
The signatories also reaffirmed their commitment to the reunification of Libya's institutions and said a stable Libya engaged in regional cooperation is essential for Mediterranean security. The dispute matters because overlapping maritime claims shape energy exploration and relations between coastal states in the eastern Mediterranean. This report relies on Euronews and the accompanying Euronews video, which carries the story; it has not been independently corroborated, and the positions of Turkey and Libya's authorities are not covered in the source material.
