EU THREAT TO ANKARA OVER PENAL CODE
By Tony Barber in Brussels
FT
November 6 2007 02:00
Turkey should be blocked from joining the European Union unless it
revises a much-criticised article of its penal code that makes it a
crime to insult Turkish national identity, the European Commission
will recommend today.
Under the proposal, the EU would refuse to open accession talks
with Turkey on the crucial policy area covering the judiciary and
human rights until Ankara changed Article 301 of its penal code,
which nationalist prosecutors have used as a weapon against Turkish
authors, scholars and journalists.
The proposal has already been communicated to EU governments and
needs their approval to take effect, but it will be made public for
the first time today by Olli Rehn, the EU’s enlargement commissioner.
It will coincide with the publication of the Commission’s annual
progress report on Turkey, whose membership talks started in October
2005 but have since run into serious trouble.
European governments froze negotiations with Turkey last December in
eight of the 35 policy areas, known as chapters, on which -agreement
is necessary before a country can join the EU.
This decision stemmed from Turkey’s refusal to open its ports and
airports to vessels and aircraft from Cyprus, but it also reflected
a more profound opposition, especially in France, to the very idea
of Turkish membership of the EU.
The Commission intends to balance its hard line on Article 301 with
a promise to open talks as soon as possible on two other chapters
that deal with consumer and health protection, and trans-European
transport networks.
"We have to be fair in order to be firm," one -Commission official
said. "We have to show that we are honouring our commitments to Turkey
by opening some chapters soon in the -accession negotiations. But we
also need to see reforms, especially as regards freedom of expression."
The Commission is not demanding that Turkey should abolish Article 301,
but rather that its provisions should be brought into line with the
European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European
Court of Human Rights, the benchmarks for the protection of human
rights in Europe.
The essential requirement is that there should be no basis for
prosecutions of the type that put Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prizewinning
author, on trial two years ago for referring to the mass killings of
Armenians in the first world war.
Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s president, said last month that no one had been
imprisoned under Article 301, but he still wanted to see amendments
because the provision was damaging Turkey’s image.
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, is delaying the launch of Turkey’s
accession talks on consumer protection and transport until he secures
approval from other governments for the creation of a "wise men’s
committee" to study the EU’s long-term future.
He and his fellow leaders are expected to set up the panel at a summit
in December, even though some countries suspect that Mr Sarkozy wants
to extract a recommendation from the "wise men" that Turkey should
never be allowed to join the EU.