Voters in Slovakia are casting ballots in a referendum on whether to join the European Union
Published:
17 May 2003 y., Saturday
Polling stations are scheduled to close at 2PM local time (1200 UTC) Saturday. Results from the two-day poll are expected on Sunday.
Support for EU membership is high in Slovakia. But less than 30 percent of the country's four-million voters cast ballots on Friday, raising concern that voter turnout may fall below the 50 percent needed for the results to be declared valid.
Such an outcome would be a major embarassment to Slovakia's center-right government, although the country's parliament would still be able to ratify the EU accession agreement.
On Friday, Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda urged all Slovakian voters to take an active part in the referendum. Slovakia signed the EU pact last month along with nine other countries, most of them former Communist states, who have been invited to join next year on May 1, 2004.
Voters in four candidate-countries (Hungary, Lithuania, Malta and Slovenia) already have endorsed membership.
The Czech Republic and Poland are scheduled to hold referendums in June, and Latvia and Estonia will hold similar votes in September. All candidate states except Cyprus are to hold referendums on EU membership.
Šaltinis:
VOA News
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
EU animal welfare rules must be more rigorously enforced, with more inspections and effective penalties, said the Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.
more »
Fifty-three year old Rasima collects dirt everyday from a paddy field in Indonesia’s east Java province, turning it into a snack made entirely from soil, called "ampo."
more »
At the moment an Argentinian working for a French company in Spain can't travel to France for a meeting on his long-term visa.
more »
An EU-wide strategy is needed to combat violence against women, which must be recognised as a crime, said participants in a European Parliament public hearing with national parliaments and civil society representatives, held on Tuesday to mark International Women's Day.
more »
You know its Tet in Vietnam when Peach and Kumquat orange trees decorate every home, shop and public establishment.
more »
A surveyor has set up his tripod and instruments under a hot tropical sun to measure plots of land in a village where the Dac Kray minority community were settled four years ago.
more »
Japanese men are answering the call of Valentine s Day a month late.
more »
In three urgent resolutions adopted on Thursday, Parliament urges Hamas to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, deplores the escalating criminal violence in Mexico and calls on South Korea to scrap the death penalty.
more »
The plight of Europe's 10 million Roma population will fall under the spotlight Tuesday afternoon when MEPs discuss an upcoming Roman summit.
more »
EU Employment and Social Affairs Ministers have today adopted a Directive to prevent injuries and infections to healthcare workers from sharp objects such as needle sticks – one of the most serious health and safety threats in European workplaces and estimated to cause 1 million injuries each year.
more »