COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Turkey 2020 Report Accompanying the

In light of the unauthorised drilling activities of Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean, in July 2019 the Council decided to suspend negotiations with Turkey on the Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement, not to hold for the time being the EU-Turkey Association Council as well as further meetings of the EU-Turkey high-level dialogues, to endorse the Commission’s proposal to reduce the pre-accession. [...] Following the meeting of the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council with the Turkish President on 9 March 2020, both sides engaged in a process to take stock of the implementation of the EU- 1 The European Council conclusions of December 2006 remain in force. [...] Tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean region further increased in the reporting period as a result of Turkey’s illegal actions and provocative statements challenging the right of the Republic of Cyprus to exploit hydrocarbon resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus. [...] The signing of a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding on the delimitation of maritime jurisdiction areas between Turkey and the National Accord Government of Libya in November 2019 increased tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, as it ignored the sovereign rights of Greece’s islands in the area concerned. [...] In its current form of implementation, the presidential system remained characterised by a lack of the necessary checks and balances required to safeguard against an excessive concentration of power in one office and to ensure the independence of the judiciary, as highlighted in the 2017 opinion of the Venice Commission.