Former European Parliament President Pöttering: Greece defends international law

Greece defends international law and is entitled to the solidarity of the European Union (EU), former President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering said in reply to a question about the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and the policy pursued by the Turkey in the region that is causing tensions.

Speaking at an online event organised by the Jean Monnet European Centre for Excellence “Visualising, Analysing and Learning about EU Studies”, based at the University of the Peloponnese, the Centre for International & European Political Economy & Governance and the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, on “The future of Europe”, the former president of the European Parliament said that the most important thing is for the northern countries in the EU to understand that the problems having in the Eastern Mediterranean are also their problems, and the problems in the east with Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, are also the problems of Greece.

As Pöttering said, Greece, as an EU member state, deserves all solidarity when it has problems with neighbouring countries, such as Turkey.

Turkey is a member of NATO but it is not a member of the EU and we must insist with regard to our relationship with your neighbour that we must act in accordance with international law. Greece is also defending international law and you deserve our solidarity, he noted.

If there is a violation of international law, we must say so and we must make it clear to all those who violate international law, according to Pöttering.

There must be an answer, Pöttering said and added: Greece deserves the solidarity of the whole EU and if there is a breach of its territory or an air violation, we must make it clear to anyone that this will not be accepted by the EU and that we as the EU will always be on the side of our Greek partners.

However, he stressed that he is in favour of clear dialogue to resolve the problems.

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