Iran has attacked Cyprus, and the EU Treaty compels Member States, including Romania, to respond with military action to this act of aggression, Gheorghe Piperea, a member of AUR and the European Parliament claims.
NEWS: A Member of the European Parliament from Cyprus, Fidias Pannayotu, has just called for the immediate organization of an extraordinary Parliament session to decide how the EU should react to the armed attack to which a Member State, Cyprus, is facing these days.
From what Fidias states, it appears that Iran has attacked Cyprus, although legacy media seem to deny this.
If this is the case, it would mean that the solidarity clause in the Treaty is immediately activated: if a third state has attacked a Member State, it has attacked the entire European Union. In such a case, all Member States, including Romania, must provide urgent military assistance, including by sending troops and weapons to the territory of the attacked Member State.
Since Cyprus has been attacked by Iran, this would mean that Member States must dispatch troops and military logistics there.
I am now curious whether the same urgency and submissiveness will be displayed as in the case of Ukraine (which, incidentally, is not an EU Member State). Let me see who will now display “glory to Cyprus” on their profile picture…
NARRATIVES: 1. Iran has attacked Cyprus, a Member State of the European Union. 2. Based on the Accession Treaty, EU Member States are forced to respond with military action to any aggression targeting another Member State.
PURPOSE: To promote anti-European and subliminally anti-Ukrainian rhetoric. To undermine trust in Romanian and European authorities. To stir and amplify social unrest. To validate previously promoted conspiracy theories.
The EU Treaty does not force Member States to undertake military operations of any kind
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Regardless of our personal bias when interpreting the current geopolitical developments, under no circumstances can it be asserted in good faith that Iran has attacked Cyprus. Most likely, MEP Pannayotu is referring to two incidents reported by the authorities in his country concerning the presence of Iranian missiles in the vicinity of the island. The first of these was recorded on March 1, 2026, when the British Secretary of State for Defense, John Healey, announced that two missiles launched from Iran were heading in the direction of Cyprus, where the United Kingdom maintains two military bases, while specifying that they did not appear to be targeting any objective on the territory of the island in the Mediterranean. Moreover, a subsequent statement by the authorities in Nicosia confirmed that Cyprus was not the target of the two missiles and that, most likely, they were part of a larger Iranian barrage, not specifically directed toward a land target, but rather toward drones and missiles launched by Israel and the United States against Iran. Because the story was gaining undesirable traction, even the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to deny reports of an Iranian attack on Cyprus. The second incident occurred during the night of March 1–2, 2026, when a drone crashed into annex buildings of one of the two British military bases in Cyprus, causing only minor material damage. Even in this case, one cannot speak of an Iranian attack, as the origin of the drone remains unknown at this time. However, even if the attack had been deliberate, it must be stated that the territory on which the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri is located, although part of the island of Cyprus, does not belong to the Cyprus per se, but to the United Kingdom, which is no longer a Member State of the European Union. Accordingly, this cannot be considered an incident affecting EU territory.
Taking the hypothetical scenario to its extreme, it must be noted that although Article 42(7) of the Treaty on European Union does indeed contain a provision concerning mutual assistance in the event of an attack against a Member State, it does not automatically establish a NATO-type mechanism and does not explicitly mandate the deployment of troops and military equipment. The relevant article stipulates that, should a Member State fall victim to armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States “shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power.” Thus, although such an event creates a legal obligation of solidarity, it does not explicitly mandate the initiation of military maneuvers, and certainly not the outbreak of war. Each State decides the type of assistance it can provide, whether military, logistical, informational or financial, and the neutral status of certain Member States, such as Ireland and Austria, is fully observed. The article in question was invoked by France after the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, and Member States offered support in various forms. However, none of these entailed the deployment of troops to French territory.
In fact, although the creation of a “European army” is the topic of growing public debates, at present the only military commitments and obligations of EU Members are those undertaken within the framework of the NATO Treaty, and even then only for Member States of the North Atlantic Alliance. Furthermore, not even Article 5 in the NATO Treaty, which entails collective defense and has a clearer military dimension, automatically provides for the deployment of troops, each State retaining the discretion to determine the form of its response.
Sovereignist solidarity
CONTEXT: Fidias Panayiotou (not Pannayotu) is an influencer and YouTube content creator who, to the surprise of the traditional political class, succeeded in getting elected as a Member of the European Parliament at only 24 years of age, as an independent, in the 2024 European election, becoming the first independent candidate ever elected in the history of Cyprus. Subsequently, he founded his own political party, Direct Democracy Cyprus, a group that describes itself as pro-European while promising greater “direct democracy” and increased participation from young voters.
The Cypriot MEP’s name has been associated with several local and international controversies, such as his statements regarding Paralympic athletes, whom he referred to using a term considered offensive (“loonies”), thereby generating harsh criticism from the Cyprus Paralympic Committee. Panayiotou was also criticized at home for his intention to conduct an interview with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar in the occupied part of Cyprus, a gesture deemed by the government in Nicosia to have been exploited by the propaganda of the Turkish Cypriot regime, running contrary to the official position on the island’s conflict. Over the years, the young politician has also taken several controversial stances regarding the war in Ukraine. In the European Parliament, he voted against a motion calling for the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces, before subsequently changing his vote to abstention, and he has repeatedly opposed financial and military support for Kyiv. In May 2025, he traveled to Moscow together with other “sovereigntist” MPs from Germany and Slovakia, with the declared purpose of promoting dialogue between the parties, a move strongly criticized by numerous officials, including the President of Cyprus, who accused him of promoting pro-Kremlin narratives within the EU. Fidias Panayiotou, however, is a supporter of Palestine, consistently voting in the European Parliament against any pro-Israeli initiatives.
It is therefore no surprise that the “sovereignist” Gheorghe Piperea would adopt a narrative launched by such a figure, with the clear aim of further cultivating Romanian resentments related to Ukraine, which he introduces into the discussion ostensibly as a side note, but which is in fact the true purpose of this post. Indeed, this is not the first false narrative promoted in the public space by the lawyer turned politician, who over the years has fueled, through fake news and disinformation, public fears regarding vaccines or digital currencies, the European Union or the World Health Organization, etc. Recently, deliberately manipulating a statement by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, Piperea claimed that the European Union had asked China not to support peace in Ukraine. Subsequently, Piperea asserted that Romania is being forced to purchase overpriced French weapons, only to deliver them free of charge to Ukraine, a narrative based on inaccurate data and calculations manipulated to fit into this misleading storyline.
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