The Greek government yesterday delivered a verbal note to the UN Secretary-General, responding to the corresponding Libyan note of June 20, rejecting in full the Libyan claims regarding the alleged violation of Libya’s sovereign rights from the licensing of two blocks south of Crete. The note also counters Libya’s attempt to unilaterally define a median line, which completely covers the Greek EEZ, as depicted in maps submitted to the UN on May 27 (a separate Greek note will also be submitted in response to this).

In a coordinated move, Athens also delivered a verbal note to Tripoli, inviting Libya — following the visit of Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis to Libya — to honor its commitment to begin dialogue on maritime zone delimitation. Greece has informed Tripoli of its negotiating team, inviting Libya to appoint its own, to enable the start of negotiations. The Greek delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Alexandra Papadopoulou, and includes Ambassador Andreas Fryganas (Director of Political Affairs at the MFA), Foivos Georgakakis (Director of the A6 Directorate for Arab Countries and the Middle East), and two members from the Legal Service, led by Senior Legal Advisor Alexandros Kolliopoulos.

In its reply note — prepared by MFA officials and ENY legal experts, under the coordination of Gerapetritis — Athens rejects all Libyan claims, stressing that the maritime blocks are within the Greek continental shelf/EEZ and fall under Greek jurisdiction according to the Law of the Sea.

It is emphasized that the blocks were delineated based on the median line between Greece and Libya, in line with the partial EEZ delimitation agreement between Greece and Egypt.

Greece also rejects Libya’s claims regarding other blocks west and southwest of Crete, noting that these licenses were issued in 2014 and 2017 without any Libyan objection at the time.

The Greek verbal note comprehensively and legally rebuts Libya’s assertions as outlined in the June 20 note, and in the unilateral submission of May 27, which included a map indicating Libya’s “external EEZ boundaries” — boundaries that cover all of Greece’s EEZ and extend almost to the territorial waters of Crete.

Athens underlines that this unilateral Libyan action seeks to ignore Greece’s sovereign rights, violates international maritime law, and is based on the illegal Turkey-Libya memorandum and the unilateral closure of the Gulf of Sirte, which Greece has denounced at the UN.

In its note, Athens once again addresses the Turkey-Libya memorandum, stating that it “completely ignores the existence of numerous Greek islands, such as Crete and the Dodecanese, and violates their right to generate maritime zones beyond territorial waters.” The memorandum “produces no legal effect and has no binding consequences — neither for the purported parties, nor for Greece, nor for any third country.”

Athens reiterates its position on the median line, emphasizing that in the absence of maritime delimitation agreements, the outer boundaries of the Greek continental shelf and EEZ (when declared) are determined by the median line — every point of which is equidistant from the nearest base points (continental and insular), from which the breadth of territorial waters is measured. This position was already noted in the September 29, 2020 letter from Greece’s Permanent Representative to the UN (A/75/375).

Nevertheless, the Greek note acknowledges Libya’s stated intent for dialogue and negotiation. In this context, a coordinated move was made to deliver the note to Tripoli proposing the establishment of a technical committee to engage in negotiations, effectively placing the ball in Tripoli’s court.

Although Greece’s formal response to Libya’s May 27 verbal note — which unilaterally and illegally declared the outer boundaries of the Libyan EEZ — is still pending, the latest Greek note effectively addresses all Libyan claims and assertions, which align with the maximalist positions of Tripoli and Ankara, as reflected in both Libyan notes of May 27 and June 20.