“No EU cooperation with Turkey on Defence and Security as long as it does not respect our common values, the borders of all Member States, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, international treaties and the international law of the sea”, said Nicolas Faradouris, Member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Security and Defence and Member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Security and Defence, from the floor of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Security and Defence in Europe.

Turkey also participated in the Conference with a large delegation headed by Hulusi Akar, Chairman of the National Defence Committee of the Turkish National Assembly and former Minister of Defence of Turkey.

MEP and Professor of European Law Nicolas Farantouris stressed, among others:

“Europe has no choice but to strengthen its autonomy and defense capabilities. In this context, however, we must move forward – in addition to financial tools – to concrete institutional steps that include:

(a) The collective guarantee of the Union’s external borders. Today, the EU “protects” but does not “guarantee” the external borders of the 27 Member States.

(b) The adoption of concrete operational tools and modalities for the implementation of the “mutual assistance clause” (under Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty).”

Finally, addressing the Turkish Delegation, he said:

“Trust. Trust is needed, as the (former) President of Finland Niiniströ mentioned. Not only between the 27 but also between the Union and our current or potential allies. We need to be very strict and very clear, especially on security and defense issues. There can be no cooperation with countries such as Turkey that do not respect our common values, the borders of the Member States, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, international treaties, and the international law of the sea. And we must make that clear now. Period.”