Brussels, 20/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - Following the meeting of Enlargement Commissioner's Günter Verheugen, with the head of Turkey's mission to the EU in Ankara Nihat Akyol (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.12) over the tapping of the EU delegation's e-mail in Turkey, the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, spoke with the Turkish Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit by phone on Wednesday about this affair and its aftermath. No information has been given about their conversation, but Turkey is reported to be prepared to meet the EU demands to protect communication under the Vienna Convention, according to information published in a press release by the Turkish foreign ministry on 19 February, in which the ministry regrets that the European Commission's Representation's e-mail was tapped from outside and published in the Turkish media. It points out that states authorising foreign missions on their soil authorise the missions to freely communicate for official reasons and must allow them to freely exercise this power. The ministry says that it immediately transmitted to the competent authorities the approach taken by the European Commission's Representation on 8 February in terms of its e-mail being tapped and that the competent authorities immediately sent the case to the legal authorities. The press release concludes by saying that Turkey is a country where the law prevails and at this stage nobody can intervene in the legal process in any way. It said it had full confidence that Turkey's legal authorities would take account of the freedom to communicate guaranteed under the Constitution and also of the privileges enjoyed by diplomatic missions in terms of communication as guaranteed by the Vienna Convention and would process the case through as soon as possible.