Greece will take its fight over a Turkey-Libya sea-border deal to EU leaders in Dublin on Friday, just as survey work restarts on the €1.9 billion (about $2.1 billion) Greece-Cyprus power cable that Ankara says crosses its continental shelf.
MoneyTurkey Politics Desk | 11 November 2026
Key points
- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will raise the Turkey-Libya deal at Friday’s informal EU summit in Dublin, a senior Athens official told Politico.
- The EU’s top two officials called the deal null and void on Oct. 20, the day Libya’s eastern-based parliament ratified it.
- A survey vessel left Crete on Tuesday to restart seabed work for the Greece-Cyprus cable, which Turkey disputes.
- Athens says it will ask the EU for sanctions and support if the row escalates.
What happened
Mitsotakis will raise the issue at the informal meeting of EU leaders in Dublin, according to a senior official in Athens cited by Politico, even though the summit is meant to focus on AI and Ukraine. The same plan was reported by upday, citing Politico.
The row centres on a 2019 memorandum that Turkey signed with Libya’s U.N.-backed government in Tripoli. It claims a corridor in the eastern Mediterranean between Greece and Cyprus, in waters Athens says fall within its exclusive economic zone. Libya’s House of Representatives, based in the east of the country, ratified it on Oct. 20, according to the European Council and Politico.
That evening, European Council President António Costa and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement that the agreement “infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states, it does not comply with the Law of the Sea, and is null and void.” Egypt, Bahrain, Cyprus, Israel and the United Arab Emirates also rejected the pact, Politico reported.
Turkey’s foreign ministry accused Brussels of adopting the “maximalist and illegal” positions of Greece and Cyprus, and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Ankara expects the EU to respect the joint will of Turkey and Libya, according to Politico.
What is at stake for markets
The money at risk sits in the Great Sea Interconnector, a planned power link between Crete and Cyprus with approved spending of about €1.94 billion (about $2.2 billion) and more than €650 million (about $730 million) of EU grant support, according to To Vima and Energonomics. The EU’s latest report on Turkey’s stalled accession talks singled out Ankara’s obstruction of the €1.9 billion project, Politico reported. Earlier survey work was halted in July 2024 during a standoff between Greek and Turkish naval vessels, To Vima reported.
French investment group Meridiam became majority owner of the project company in August, alongside Greek grid operator IPTO, according to Politico and To Vima. The survey vessel Abeille Marengo left Heraklion on Tuesday to start seabed surveys, Great Sea Interconnector and IPTO said. Turkey answered Greece’s navigational warning for the work with its own, claiming part of the area south of Kasos as Turkish continental shelf, Geopolitiki reported.
Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said last week that Greece “will request sanctions and support from the European Union” in the event of any escalation, and told a parliamentary committee that Athens is bracing for a Turkish reaction to the cable work, Politico reported.
Why it matters
Turkey’s ties with the EU are already strained over trade and Black Sea security, and the sea-border fight adds another front just as Ankara aims to write its Blue Homeland maritime doctrine into law by year’s end, according to Politico. A clash at sea would put the cable’s financing and timetable in question and could revive sanctions talk in Brussels.
Mitsotakis took the issue to the U.N. General Assembly last month. “There is no precedent for such a diagonal delimitation,” he said, holding up a map. “Geography cannot be rewritten … and sovereign rights cannot be erased by drawing arbitrary lines on a map.”
What to watch
- Whether Friday’s Dublin summit produces any EU statement on Turkey
- Any Turkish naval or diplomatic response to the cable surveys
- Sanctions talk in Brussels if the standoff escalates
- Financing decisions for the Greece-Cyprus cable
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For information only. Not investment advice.
Sources
- Politico: https://www.politico.eu/article/turkey-libya-maritime-deal-raises-greece-tensions-eu-leaders-summit/
- European Council: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/10/20/joint-statement-by-the-president-of-the-european-council-and-the-president-of-the-european-commission/
- Great Sea Interconnector: https://www.great-sea-interconnector.com/en/news/press-release-great-sea-interconnector-seabed-survey-activities-0
- To Vima: https://www.tovima.com/politics/french-research-vessel-sails-for-greece-cyprus-cable-seabed-surveys/
- Energonomics: https://energonomics.gr/ilektriki-diasyndesi-elladas-kyprou-apeplefse-to-erevnitiko-ploio-ti-ekkremei-gia-to-ergo-ton-19-dis-evro/
- Geopolitiki: https://geopolitiki.com/greece/abeille-marengo-sails-heraklion-seabed-surveys-greece-cyprus-cable-gsi-admie-navtex/
- upday: https://www.upday.com/uk/mitsotakis-to-raise-turkey-libya-sea-deal-with-eu-leaders-in-dublin/0swt5jj
