"This episode has revealed a system error in Turkey's constitutional framework that may need to be addressed through a constitutional amendment," Rehn told a news conference on Saturday after EU foreign ministers met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan in Brdo, Slovenia. Rehn said much would be at stake for Turkey's EU aspirations when members of the Constitutional Court meet today to consider whether the prosecutor's case, accusing the AK Party of subverting the secular order, is admissible."In a normal European democracy such political issues should be debated in parliament and decided through the ballot box, not in the courts," he said. "Under Council of Europe guidelines, a party could only be banned if it practiced or advocated violence to overthrow the democratic constitutional order."
Asked what impact a decision by the court to ban the AK Party and bar top politicians such as President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from office could have, Rehn said Brussels was obliged to review the negotiating process in the event of a serious and persistent breach of EU political and human rights criteria. "I hope that judges in the Constitutional Court will consider Turkey's long-term goal of joining the EU and becoming a functioning European democracy," Rehn said, warning that if a country breaches its democratic obligations -- in this case freedom to form a political party -- the EU is obliged to reconsider the accession process.
"It is important that the Turkish government would now keep its calm and nerves and keep up the momentum of the reform process despite this disturbance," he said, underlining the urgency of changing a key law on freedom of expression.
Turkey's ruling party has a majority in the 550-member Parliament, and its members could likely regroup in a new party in order to lead the government despite the disruption of any closure. The government says the case is a desperate act by opponents in the judiciary and other state sectors who resent the erosion of their traditional power, as well as a blow to Turkey's efforts to model its democratic institutions on Western standards as a condition of EU membership.
For his part, Babacan told Turkish reporters he had renewed Ankara's commitment to EU-driven reforms and aimed to enact a reform of the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), used to prosecute writers and intellectuals for "insulting Turkishness," in May or June.
Turkey began EU membership talks in 2005 but has made slow progress, partly because of the unresolved conflict over the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus but also due to deep misgivings in some EU member states, notably France and Austria.
Babacan said the EU and Turkey were ready to open accessions negotiations soon on three more of the 35 policy areas into which EU law is divided -- intellectual property, the free movement of capital and company law.
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