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Athens · Thursday, 22 October 2026

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Portrait of EU High Representative Kaja Kallas in front of the EU flag

Cyprus

EU “strongly regrets” Libyan ratification of the Turkish–Libyan memorandum: Kallas restates that it infringes third states’ rights

In a formal statement on 21 October, High Representative Kaja Kallas said the EU strongly regrets Libya’s ratification of the 2019 Turkish–Libyan memorandum and that the EU position is “firm and clear”.

GEOPOLITIKI GEOPOLITIKINewsroom
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Photo: Aurore Martignoni / European Union, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

On 21 October the EU put its objection to the Turkish–Libyan maritime memorandum on the record in a formal statement. In it, High Representative Kaja Kallas, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the EU “strongly regrets” the ratification of the 2019 memorandum by Libya’s House of Representatives on 20 October 2026, according to the text published by the Council of the EU.

The statement adds that “the EU position regarding the MoU is firm and clear.” It refers back to the conclusions of the European Council of December 2019 and to their reiteration in June 2025, in which the EU said the memorandum infringes the sovereign rights of third states and does not comply with the Law of the Sea. Greece and Cyprus are those third states.

The legal basis of the EU position

The Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) is the framework Greece and Cyprus rely on: islands generate maritime zones like any other land territory, and delimitation between states with opposite or adjacent coasts is a matter for agreement or, failing that, for international adjudication. The 2019 memorandum, which draws a line between Turkey and Libya across waters where Greek islands including Crete lie, was never accepted by Athens or Nicosia. Turkey, for its part, has not joined UNCLOS.

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The formal statement follows the exchange reported earlier on Geopolitiki, in which Kallas told Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan that the Libyan vote “violates the sovereign rights of third states” (Kallas to Fidan: the Turkish–Libyan memorandum “violates the sovereign rights of third states”). The written statement turns that position into the EU’s official line on the ratification itself.

Ankara’s case

Turkish officials have maintained that the memorandum is valid and that the Libyan parliament’s ratification confirms it. That is Ankara’s position; it rests on a treaty regime Turkey has not joined, and it has been rejected by Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and the EU.

Greece’s Foreign Ministry has said the ratification does not alter the memorandum’s illegal and legally non-existent character, and Athens has also raised the matter at the UN Security Council. The Council statement gives no new measures or deadlines; it restates the EU position and its reference to the European Council conclusions.

Cyprus Eastern Mediterranean European Union Greece Kaja Kallas Libya

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