Turkey warned France on Wednesday against trying to bury its aspirations to European Union membership by manipulating a “wise men’s committee” that is expected to pronounce on Europe’s long-term future.

Mehmet Simsek, Turkey’s economy minister, also re­affirmed his government’s promise to remove an obs­tacle to Turkish entry by changing a much-criticised article of the penal code that makes it a crime to insult Turkish national identity.