, a joint borrowing scheme backed by the EU budget to strengthen the bloc’s defense capabilities.){kind=link}
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has warned against Turkey’s participation in the Security Action For Europe (SAFE), a joint borrowing scheme backed by the EU budget to strengthen the bloc’s defense capabilities, the Greek Kathimerini newspaper reported.
“Our position is that countries that threaten EU member states with war cannot participate,” Mitsotakis said, in a thinly veiled reference to Ankara. “It is up to [these countries] to build good relations with Europe, but that requires respect for its principles,” he added.
The Greek premier was speaking at a joint press conference with European Council President António Costa following their meeting at Maximos Mansion in Athens on Monday.
SAFE, launched by the European Commission in March and approved in May, will provide €150 billion in long-term loans to strengthen Europe’s defense industry through 2030. At least 65 percent of each project must be carried out by companies based in the European Union, the European Economic Area or Ukraine, with non-EU partners limited to a share of 15 to 35 percent.
The program allows candidate countries such as Turkey to join through cooperation agreements under Article 17 of the regulation, subject to approval by a qualified majority of EU states. Greece had sought unanimous consent for such deals, citing EU Treaty articles, but the proposal was rejected.
Athens, however, recorded its reservations and has signaled it will continue to oppose Turkey’s participation as long as a casus belli, which refers to Turkey’s 1995 parliamentary declaration that any extension of Greek territorial waters in the Aegean beyond six nautical miles would be considered a cause for war, remains.
Greece and Turkey, both NATO members, have a long history of disputes over maritime boundaries, airspace and territorial sovereignty in the Aegean.
After years of tension concerning migration, energy rights and maritime borders in the Aegean Sea, Greece and Turkey restarted high-level talks in December, when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid his first to Athens since 2017 and signed a declaration of friendship between the two historic rivals.
Mitsotakis reciprocated Erdoğan’s visit in May 2024.