The parliamentary Legislation Committee on Tuesday unanimously endorsed the government's motion to amend the declaration on the fundamental principles of Croatia's European Union accession negotiations whereby the referendum on accession would be held after the signing of the accession treaty, and not before as envisaged now.
The government has proposed that the referendum be held within 30 days of the accession treaty signing.
The government feels that citizens will be more informed about how to vote in the referendum after the completion of the accession negotiations and the signing of the accession treaty, when all terms of EU membership are known. Depending on the referendum outcome, the parliament would ratify the treaty.
The government firmly believes that the final decision on joining the EU should be made by citizens in a referendum, said Dubravka Vlasic Plese, head of the Foreign Ministry department for the coordination of alignment with the EU legal system.
She said Croatia and the Union had been agreeing the text of the accession treaty since January, and that most EU countries held the accession referendum after signing the accession treaty.
The government forwarded its motion to change the declaration to parliament late last month, when Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor stressed the need to give Croatian citizens in the coming period all the information about what Croatia's EU membership would bring.
Parliament adopted the declaration on 19 January 2005, expressing the agreement of all parliamentary parties that EU accession was a strategic goal.
