Constitutional amendments, which arise from preparations for Croatia's membership of the European Union, will be adopted by July 15 this year, Croatian Parliament Vice President Vladimir Seks, who also chairs the Parliament's Committee on the Constitution, said in Split on Saturday.
Seks said that the Constitution would be amended to include a provision under which the referendum on Croatia's joining the EU would be successful if a majority of those taking part in it voted in favour.
He went on to say that opposing interpretations were likely to be provoked by constitutional amendments regulating the transfer of constitutional powers to EU institutions and that it would raise the question of whether this was "a loss of sovereignty".
Seks explained that a separate article in constitutional changes "will additionally emphasise that Croatia is not joining just any organisation to which it transfers some of its powers, but such an organisation which respects and protects the highest values of European unity and which is founded on them".
Seks said that debates about Croatia "losing sovereignty" by joining the EU could be avoided by raising awareness of the so-called "joint exercise of sovereignty".
In her address at the event, Constitutional Court president Jasna Omejec criticised a previous draft amendment that would give members of national minorities double voting rights.
She said that the term 'nation' in the Constitution meant "the Croatian nation, that is, the sum of all Croatian citizens regardless of their ethnic or national affiliation" and that by recognising double voting rights for members of a national minority would "abolish the citizen substratum" along ethnic lines.
