Croatians vote Sunday on joining the European Union
According to the latest poll, published yesterday evening, 60 percent of Croats intend to approve of the treaty of accession signed after six years of negotiations on December 9 last year, while 31 percent intend to vote against and there is a swing element of 9 percent undecided.
Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic added that ''the present situation in Europe is far from rosy: despite this, the EU remains the most economically and socially ordered and complex community with the highest level of protection for human rights that has ever been founded by humankind''. ''We should also bear in mind that the EU is in constant change and now it is perhaps changing more than ever''.
Almost all of Croatia's cultural and academic institutions have come down in favour of accession to the EU. Support comes from a broad spectrum of civil society, veterans of the war of independence and the Croatian Catholic Church. On the 'No' side, there are the ultra-nationalist and conservative formations of the political far right, who maintain that in the EU, Croatia would lose its prerogatives as a sovereign nation, and that the home market would be flooded by EU products.
In the case of a positive vote in the referendum, the parliaments of all 27 EU member states will have to ratify the Treaty of Accession of Croatia and this will have to take place before the planned date of entry: July 2013, making it the 28th member state.
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/nations/europe/2012/01/20/visualizza_new.html_47779396.html
The referendum on Sunday will be an indication of the willingness of countries to join the EU in spite of the problems in the Eurozone. It will be interesting to see if "the ultra-nationalist and conservative formations of the political far right" can rally the "NO" vote.
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