(STRASBOURG) - The European Union could push forward next month with membership negotiations with Turkey, opening talks on two more policy sectors, the EU's presidency and executive arm said Wednesday.

"If technical preparations continue well, we may be able to open two new chapters" at a June 17 accession conference, said Janez Lenarcic, European affairs minister for Slovenia, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, in a debate on Turkey in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, said chapters on company law and intellectual property rights could be opened for talks.

All EU candidate nations must successfully negotiate 35 policy chapters before they are eligible for membership.

Turkey -- whose progress has been hampered by its diplomatic impasse with Cyprus and reluctance in some EU quarters to admit such a large, mainly Muslim nation -- has opened six chapters since membership talks began in 2005.

So far this year no new policy areas have been opened.

Eight of the 35 chapters remain formally frozen due to Ankara's refusal to open its ports and airports to EU member Cyprus.

Turkey is the only nation to recognise the mainly-Turkish statelet in northern Cyprus.

While the talks may be about to move forward, Turkey's EU membership bid is lagging far behind that of Croatia, which began negotiations at the same time but is now in prime position to become the 28th EU member having opened 18 policy chapters.

The pace of Turkey's negotiations "depends on the progress made in legal and democratic reforms and especially on their implementation," said Rehn.

"The best medicine to truly revitalise the EU accession process of Turkey is to ensure the reforms move forward, that a genuine political dialogue is starting and that both democracy and secularism are respected," he added.

"The technical talks on chapters make up the walls and rooms of the house, maybe even the roof some day, while the legal and democratic reforms constitute the very foundations of any new EU member," he told the assembled MEPs.

Lenarcic welcomed Turkey's recent amendment of the controversial Article 301 of its penal code as "a step in the right direction" while adding that this too must be implemented.

Article 301, which had outlawed insulting "Turkishness", infamously landed dozens of intellectuals in court and prompted harsh EU warnings that freedom of speech was under threat.

Under the amendment, "Turkishness" -- a term criticised as too broad and vague -- was replaced with the "Turkish nation" and the envisaged jail term lessened from three to two years, allowing the sentence to be suspended automatically or converted to a fine.

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