TURKEY: Turkey's withdrawal of a penal reform package because of a row over criminalising adultery has cast doubt on the country's prospects of starting accession talks with the EU, writes Denis Staunton in Brussels
The Enlargement Commissioner, Mr Guenther Verheugen, said yesterday Ankara ought to put the reforms in place before the Commission reports next month on Turkey's readiness to start accession talks. However Turkey's Prime Minister, Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the EU to stop interfering in his country's domestic affairs, insisting Turkey would make its own decisions.
Mr Verheugen, who has long been a champion of Turkish membership of the EU, said the withdrawal of the penal reform package was worrying.
"It is a very worrying development that I see in Turkey. I can only say it would be much better to have the new penal code adopted because this is the centrepiece of the question of whether Turkey meets the conditions of being a state of law."
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) withdrew the draft penal code on Thursday after the opposition refused to back a plan to make adultery punishable by law.
Some AKP leaders were willing to abandon the adultery measure, which has provoked outrage in western Europe, but Mr Erdogan feared that dropping the measure could upset the party's conservative supporters.
Mr Erdogan said yesterday Turkey had made all the reforms necessary to fulfil the political criteria for starting talks with the EU, and told Brussels to stop meddling in his country's affairs. "Let us make one thing clear. We are Turkey, we are Turks. We will make our own decisions - parliament will make our decisions."
The planned reform would update Turkey's 78-year-old penal code, which was borrowed from Mussolini's Italy, to bring it into line with European standards. The proposal to outlaw adultery has reinforced fears among some EU politicians, however, that Turkey is not ready to start the process of joining the EU.
The Commission's report, due on October 6th, will form the basis for a decision on whether to start accession talks with Turkey.
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