French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday hosts leaders from Mediterranean states for a summit set to be dominated by growing tensions between Turkey and EU states in the east of the sea.
The EuroMed 7 is an informal group of seven EU Mediterranean states, sometimes dubbed “Club Med”, that held its first summit in 2016 and notably does not include Turkey.
But the meeting on the French island of Corsica will bring together leaders of France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain with eastern Mediterranean EU members Greece and Cyprus.
France has strongly backed Greece and Cyprus in a growing standoff with Turkey over hydrocarbon resources and naval influence in the eastern Mediterranean that has sparked fears of conflict.
The summit will get under way at around 1500 GMT at a coastal resort just outside Corsica’s capital Ajaccio.
The aim of the talks is to “make progress in the consensus on the relationship of the EU with Turkey above all ahead of the 24-25 September EU summit,” a French presidential official said.
Reaffirming Macron’s policy towards Turkey, the official said that France wants a “clarification” in relations with Ankara which should be an “important” partner.
Turkey has sought to join the EU for over half a century and while its membership bid has stalled badly in the last few years, and is no longer seen as realistic in some quarters, it remains a candidate to join the bloc.
