Minister Vesna Pusić held press conference, officially launching Croatia’s EU accession referendum campaign

The referendum on Croatia’s EU accession is to be held 22 January 2012 between 7:00 and 19:00 hours, with the State Election Committee (www.izbori.hr) being in charge of conducting the referendum, registering voters outside the place of residence and offering all the technical information

The referendum on Croatia’s EU accession is to be held 22 January 2012 between 7:00 and 19:00 hours, with the State Election Committee (www.izbori.hr) being in charge of conducting the referendum, registering voters outside the place of residence and offering all the technical information.

The Ministry’s campaign for Croatia’s EU membership will be based on five key elements:

• Transparency and availability of all the official documents pertaining to the negotiations and Croatia’s EU membership published on the Ministry’s webpages, encompassing all the documentation from the six years of negotiations.
• Involvement of commercial web portals, with debates, interviews and links to the Ministry’s pages.
• Video messages from Croatian politicians to the citizens, as well as Poland’s welcome message and the response from our students, broadcast on four national television networks and 17 local television stations, including the audio version broadcast on the Croatian Radio and over 80 local stations. The electronic media are also to hold public debates on Croatia’s EU membership.
• Informative material and brochures distributed to all the households (“Everything You Wanted to Know about the European Union” in two million copies), and to libraries, schools, syndicates, counties, universities and political parties (“What Does the European Union Membership Bring” in 14,000 copies).
• Info line “Hello EU!“ (0800 622 622), at which the citizens can get answers to their questions.

Minister Pusić pointed out that the Ministry’s goal was to provide by the date of the referendum all the relevant and accurate information about the EU accession negotiations and what the membership actually means for our citizens. The basic concept behind the campaign is to provide the citizens with all the information so they could base their vote on accurate data and facts.

In that regard, the Ministry and the government would like to establish open dialogue on all the topics concerning the EU accession. “This government wants to respond openly, clearly and precisely to all of our citizens’ questions and doubts, as well as establish a frank and open dialogue with all the interested parties”, said the minister.

Minister Pusić invited all the citizens to vote on the referendum and decide on Croatia’s EU membership.

All the relevant documents can be found on the Ministry’s webpages www.mvep.hr and all the promotional videos on the Ministry’s YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/mveprh.

Media contact:
Zvonimir Frka-Petešić
Directorate for Croatia’s EU Accession Process Support
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
7-8 Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square | HR–10000 Zagreb
T: +385 1 45 98 030 | zvonimir.frka-petesic@mvep.hr | www.mvep.hr

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