ANKARA, Sept 26 (AFP) - The Turkish parliament convened Sunday for an emergency debate on a penal code reform set as a key condition by the European Union for possible accession talks with Turkey.
The lawmakers were recalled from summer recess after the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to drop a controversial plan to criminalize adultery, ending a week of crisis with Brussels.
EU officials said the adoption of the reform bill to amend Turkey`s 78-year-old criminal code will help Ankara get a positive review of its democratization progress in a crucial report by the European Commission on October 6.
The amendment is widely seen as the last legal reform required to align Turkish legislation with basic EU political norms, which Brussels has set as a condition for the opening of membership talks with candidate nations.
The row on whether adultery should be made a jailable offense prompted the government to withdraw the bill from parliament last week, sparking an unexpected crisis between Turkey and the EU.
Following fence-mending talks with EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen in Brussels on Thursday, Erdogan said plans to make adultery a punishable offense had been abandoned and appealed for a special parliamentary session to finish work on the penal code reform.
Verheugen said Erdogan`s assurances left "no more obstacles on the table" ahead of the release of his progress report on Turkey.
The October 6 report will form the basis for a December 17 decision by EU leaders on whether to begin membership talks with Turkey, a vast and relatively poor Muslim country that has been an official candidate since 1999.
Erdogan was confident that the EU would give his country the green light.
"I would like to state very openly, clearly, that I am hopeful a date for accession talks will be determined in December this year," Erdogan said in a monthly televised address to the nation late Saturday.
"If this happens, a long and difficult road will open for Turkey, but we will head down it with enthusiasm," he said.
In Sunday`s session, the opposition accused Erdogan of having dragged Turkey into a futile row with the EU on the adultery clause and mocked his U-turn after his meeting with Verheugen.
"We could not make him understand -- only Verheugen, in Brussels, managed to," one opposition legislator said.
Erdogan did not attend the session, opting instead for a trip to the south of the country.
The parliament had already debated the bulk of the penal reform, which introduces significant changes to the current legislation, borrowed from Benito Mussolini`s fascist Italy. Only two provisions were still to be taken up.
The draft has generally been welcomed for granting greater individual freedoms and providing heavier penalties to rights abusers and torturers.
Women`s groups, however, have slammed several amendments on grounds that they are still discriminatory.
Critics say the draft fails to totally ban virginity tests, maintains an article that could be used to reduce the sentences of perpetrators of "honor killings" and punishes consensual sex between minors.
The lawmakers were also debating two other bills related to the penal code.