A leader of the Croatian People's Party (HNS) and chair of the National Committee in charge of overseeing Croatia's EU accession talks, Vesna Pusic, told Radio Split on Wednesday that the referendum on accession to the EU should be postponed for February 2012 as there would not be enough time due to parliamentary elections and the Christmas and New Year holidays to inform citizens properly about all relevant facts on EU membership.
She said that the next parliament should change a previous parliamentary decision on the EU accession referendum.
"Under the Constitution, the referendum is held within 30 days from a decision to that effect adopted by a two-thirds majority in Parliament. At the beginning of this year, the Parliament decided that the referendum would be held within 30 days from the signing of the EU accession treaty. This is neither the Constitution nor a law, but a parliament decision which should be changed by the next parliament," Pusic said.
Noting that parliamentary elections would be held on December 4, and that the signing of the EU accession treaty was envisaged for December 9, Pusic said that under the existing parliament decision, this would mean that the referendum on EU entry should be held by 9 January 2012.
"There is no need to risk a month after the elections and nine days after the New Year in a situation when there has not been enough time for a campaign to communicate to citizens the facts about where we are going and what they will decide on in the referendum," Pusic said, adding that the existing parliament decision on the EU entry referendum should be changed and that the next parliament should adopt in January 2012 a new decision on the referendum so that the vote could be held in February.
