Perhaps the EU summit on the Eastern Mediterranean tension was best summarized by the U.S. media. "The EU has sided firmly with Greece and Cyprus (the Greek Cypriot administration) in the drilling fight, but Brussels has also been trying to manage an array of other tensions with Turkey," wrote Politico magazine. "EU leaders reached a deal over how to tackle Turkey, agreeing to tacitly warn Ankara of sanctions if it fails to resolve long-standing disputes with Greece and Cyprus, including over energy drilling in the Mediterranean."

I put nothing past the EU when it comes to defending Greeks – read: prodding, agitating and provoking that has resulted in the deaths of over a hundred thousand of them – on issues related to Turkey. Twenty-seven EU leaders, in Politico’s words, "also dangled some tantalizing plums should Turkey cool the tensions with its EU neighbors."

The proverbial carrots the EU communique included were long-disregarded issues like modernizing the customs union and carrying through with neglected agreements on migration and refugee assistance. Fearing that Turks cannot comprehend the EU statement, French President Emmanuel Macron tried to explain it, saying: "If Turkey refuses to see sense ... I see no option but for my fellow European leaders to impose meaningful sanctions."

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was more honest on the issue that it is not about the legalities but money: "Because this is no longer just about European solidarity. It is about recognizing that vital interests – strategic European interests – are now at stake. If Europe wants to exercise true geopolitical power, it simply cannot afford to appease a belligerent Turkey."

Despite these words, it seems that Greece is still willing to restart the bilateral exploratory talks it walked away from in 2016. The 60th session of them was held in Athens and then-Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had refused to send a Greek team to Istanbul. These exploratory talks started in 2004 as a means to establish common ground on how to define the continental shelf and economic zone of islands.

The Greek thesis has been that no matter how small or how close to the mainland they are, all islands have the same territorial waters, continental shelves and economic zones. However, many other countries, including France and the U.K., do not share this opinion. Israel thinks that islands are just protrusions on the continental shelf of the mainland and therefore do not have similar legal rights. As a result, Israel refused to sign a new law on sea convention designed to solve similar differences between nations. Turkey and the U.S. also refused to ratify the convention.

Yet, despite Ankara's just and legal calls that Turkey and Turkish Cypriots' demands are considered as fairly as Greece and Greek Cypriot concerns, EU sides with Greece. Their "peace in the Mediterranean" canard is a simple dictum for Turkey to refrain from explorations of oil and gas there. Should Turkey heed their definition of exclusive economic zones, Turkish people could only fish with their rods in the harbors of Antalya and İzmir.

So, the threats issued last week were purely political in nature, made in the full knowledge of all parties that they cannot be carried out. These political threats prove one and only one thing: The EU has never solved any international issue successfully in its long history. In the same week Brussels wantonly held out a stick and carrot to Turkey, it also started a legal campaign against the U.K. about its own law. After the House of Commons passed the Internal Markets Bill about commerce in sovereign British territory, an EU summit declared that it endangered peace in Northern Ireland by removing it from the European customs agreement and putting it under the control of British customs. According to Europeans, thus, the U.K. has "risked a flare-up of the horrific violence that has ravaged the island of Ireland."

Analyzing the EU threat of legal action against the U.K., Cameron Hilditch, a William F. Buckley fellow in political journalism at the National Review Institute, concluded that these "really amount to no more than a final, impotent temper tantrum thrown" by the EU.

Hilditch claims the EU’s "pound of flesh" for the fair and just exit for the U.K. is a fluid and permeable border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. The EU's "king’s ransom" for Turkey's full membership is calling off all exploration in the Mediterranean Sea. However, let's face it: What they really want is to tackle Turkey to the ground.