German Parliament: Turkish-Libyan maritime MoU is illegal

The legal department of the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) opined that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Turkey and Libya on the jurisdiction of the maritime zones in the eastern Mediterranean was illegal.

According to German media outlet Deutsche Welle, which leaked excerpts of the paper, in the exhaustive 18-page report the scientific office of the Bundestag presents the arguments of all sides, including Greece and Turkey, as well as the letter sent to the UN on the issue, stressing the deal was reached “without the consent of other Mediterranean countries” and concludes that the memorandum violates customary maritime law and is therefore unlawful and operates against third parties.

The report underlines that any negotiation on the delimitation of the EEZ in the eastern Mediterranean can only be reached after taking into account the maritime areas of the Greek islands and with the assent of Greece, Cyprus and possibly other Mediterranean countries.