Hello, I'm Paige and this is the Eurointelligence podcast covering current affairs in the EU and Eurozone.

I'm joined by Wolfgang and Suzanne, directors of Eurointelligence here in Oxford.

This was a busy week for the EU, wasn't it? We had the new Rule of Law Report that was released on Wednesday, the Special European Council Summit, and of course, Brexit.

At the Special Summit, leaders focused a lot of

their efforts on how to solve a problem like Turkey. They finally came to an agreement that broke a

deadlock that had been delaying sanctions on Belarus. Watching the summit this time, I have to say

I was getting more of an existential crisis vibe and not as much of this feel-good Hamiltonian moment kind of narrative that was on display

back in July. Suzanne, you've been covering the situation in the Mediterranean. It took them quite a while

to come up with this statement, many hours of negotiations over something that seemed a little bit

toothless to me. What was going through your mind when you

read the statement on Turkey? It was certainly not a Hamiltonian moment when it was to Turkey.

Yes, you could call it a success in a sense that it took the veto against Pellivers

from the table from Cyprus. But when it comes to Turkey itself,

what's lacking here is holding Turkey accountable for what it did, all the provocative

actions in the Mediterranean around Cyprus, but also around Greece. This didn't happen.

It is a forward-looking draft in a sense that there is a possibility of sanctions,

there is a possibility of some carrots if Turkey is refraining from provocative actions. But the

timeframe is given until December for it to prove that it is actually serious about de-escalation.

So this is a forward-looking strategy.

What I would have liked to see is something that it takes Turkey right at that heart and

saying, well, this is what you did and these are the consequences for it.

Because the message it sends out to Turkey is, yes, you can fool around.

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