EU suspends high-level meeting with Turkey over Cyprus drilling row

BRUSSELS, July 16 (KUNA) -- The European Union Foreign Affairs Council has decided to suspend negotiations with Turkey on the Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement and agreed not to hold the Association Council ministerial meeting and further meetings of the EU-Turkey high-level dialogues for the time being.
The Council in a statement late Monday also endorsed the European Commission's proposal to reduce the pre-accession assistance to Turkey for 2020 and invited the European Investment Bank to review its lending activities in Turkey, notably with regard to sovereign-backed lending.
The measures were taken due to "Turkey's continued new illegal drilling activities," said the Council, which met in Brussels Monday.
"Despite repeated calls to cease its illegal activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey continued its drilling operations west of Cyprus and launched a second drilling operation northeast of Cyprus within Cypriot territorial waters," it noted.
The Council reiterated, "the serious immediate negative impact that such illegal actions have across the range of EU-Turkey relations," and called on Turkey "to refrain from such actions, act in a spirit of good neighborliness and respect the sovereignty and sovereign rights of Cyprus in accordance with international law". (end) nk.gaa