Union federations on Wednesday asked President Ivo Josipovic and Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic to enable the simultaneous holding of the unions' "referendum on referenda" and the referendum on Croatia's accession to the European Union.
The unions recalled that parliament adopted a decision on December 23 to call the EU accession referendum but not to hold at the same time the referendum to ease requirements for holding referenda in the future.
They expect the president to do so, at the government's proposal and with the prime minister's countersignature, as envisaged by the constitution.
The unions recalled that an agreement was made with the previous government on 23 November 2010 to hold the EU accession referendum at the same time as the "referendum on referenda", the question of which would be if voters are in favour of calling a referendum if so requested by 200,000 citizens and if the time required to collect signatures for the referendum be 30 days.
The unions recalled that Milanovic's positions on referenda requirements, stated in parliament in 2010, had been the same as the unions'.
