The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, confirmed on a visit to Brussels today that a new penal code to be submitted to parliament at the weekend will not criminalise adultery.
Mr Erdogan told a news conference that Turkey had worked very hard to fulfill criteria for starting entry talks as laid down by EU leaders at a summit in Copenhagen.
He said he was confident the 25-member bloc would decide in December that talks could start.
The European Commission is due to present a report on 6 October on whether Turkey has met the political and economic criteria to pave the way to starting accession negotiations.
The report, until recently widely expected to be positive, was thrown into doubt when the Turkish parliament failed to adopt a new penal code and by the controversial proposal to criminalise adultery.
