Sweden's parliament on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment that will let it pass more stringent anti-terror laws, a crucial demand from Turkey for Stockholm's NATO membership bid.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland dropped their longstanding policies of non-alignment to join NATO. Yet Turkey (itself a NATO member) has opposed Sweden and Finland's NATO membership bids claiming that Sweden housed "terrorists".
The constitutional amendment means that Sweden can now "limit freedom of association when it comes to groups that engage in or support terrorism."
The amendment will make it easier to prosecute members of Kurdistan's Workers Party (PKK), which has been put on a list of terrorist organisations by Ankara and most of its Western allies.
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Sweden's new Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson hailed the amendment during a visit to Ankara last week: "Sweden will take big steps to give Swedish legal authorities more power to fight terrorism," he said at a press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Last week, Erdogan acknowledged that Sweden had taken "positive steps" and was moving in the right direction. The change will come into force on 1 January 2023.
