EU top diplomat drives homes threat of more sanctions on Turkey

European Union foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell highlighted the possibility of tougher EU sanctions against Turkey over its activities in the eastern Mediterranean, saying the bloc’s leaders will tackle the matter at a Dec. 10-11 meeting.

“Certainly we are in a critical moment with our relationship with Turkey,” Borrell told the European Parliament on Tuesday in Brussels. “The leaders will have to take a decision” if there will be more sanctions, he said.

In February, the EU imposed asset freezes and travel bans on two employees of Turkish Petroleum Corp. in response to Turkey’s natural-gas hunt off Cyprus. A Cypriot proposal to include Turkish entities and add individuals to that blacklist has been held up since June amid hesitancy by EU countries including Germany.

Regarding more possible penalties against Turkey, EU heads of government pledged on Oct. 1-2 to “take decisions as appropriate at the latest” in December. The vow was part of an agreement that unblocked EU sanctions against Belarus by winning over Cyprus, which had pressed the bloc to take a tougher stance against Ankara.

Turkey irked the EU further on Oct. 8 by reopening a ghost town—Varosha—in the Turkish-controlled part of Cyprus. The area had been abandoned and sealed off since Turkey’s 1974 takeover of northern Cyprus. Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the area and held what was described as a “picnic” in Varosha, prompting an EU rebuke.

“We are all deeply concerned about developments on the ground,” Borrell said on Tuesday.