European External Action Service

Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu, stressed, at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council held in Brussels, the importance of the consistent and swifter implementation of the Mali Peace Agreement.

With the prospect of a new wave of refugees fleeing Turkey's planned invasion of northern Syria, Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria plan to submit a text on Tuesday at a meeting of European Union ministers of justice and home affairs to highlight that the Eastern Mediterranean migrant route has not been given the appropriate attention by the EU.

Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria have decided to launch a joint initiative for migrants in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Greek Ministry of Citizens Protection announced in a press release. The initiative will be presented to the Council of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the European Union on 7-8 October in Luxembourg.

Diplomat Cristian Tudor on Thursday was designated Head of the European Union Delegation to Kuwait, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) announced in a press release. Cristian Tudor is currently Romania's Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Qatar.

A first discussion will take place Wednesday in Brussels regarding a number of EU sanctions on Turkey following a call by Cyprus for EU solidarity after Turkish drilling activities off Cyprus.

The measures will likely be agreed Wednesday at a meeting of EU envoys and aproved by EU foreign ministers when they meet in Brussels next week.

The European Union is considering suspending most high-level contacts with Turkey and cut the flow of funds in protest of the Turkish drilling activities in the Cyprus EEZ, Bloomberg reports.
A range of measures will reportedly be discussed by EU ministers on Wednesday in Brussels.

European Union leaders expressed their solidarity with and full support for Cyprus on Thursday over Turkey's illegal drilling activities by its Fatih vessel within the island's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and called for measures to be taken against Ankara, which however remained defiant. 

The European Union will "closely monitor" Turkish drilling activities off the coast of Cyprus and "stands ready to respond appropriately," the European Council said in the draft conclusions of a summit in Brussels. 

EU leaders meet today and tomorrow at a meeting in Brussels. They have to decide who will be the successor of Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission and who will head the European Central Bank, the European External Action Service and the European Council.

Bulgaria is represented by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, writes BNT.

The Council of the European Union has expressed "serious concerns over Turkey's current illegal drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean and deplores that Turkey has not yet responded to the European Union's repeated calls to cease such activities."