EU opponents urge Croatians to vote 'no' in referendum

(ZAGREB) - An umbrella group of Croatia's EU membership opponents urged Saturday citizens to vote 'no' in a forthcoming referendum over the issue during an anti-Brussels gathering held in the capital Zagreb.

"Say 'No' to the European Union" in the January 22 referendum, Josip Miljak, head of a minor ultra-nationalist party and one of the organisers, told some 300 people, according to police, who gathered at Zagreb's central square.

"It is an integration that is falling apart at all seams. The EU (idea) has been already used up and for Croatia it is too late to enter," he stressed.

Another organiser, Zeljko Sacic, who spoke from an improvised stage dominated by the banner "No to EU", also called on Croatians to "take part at the referendum and vote 'no'."

"The path towards EU was made of betrayals, suffering and blackmail," he said in a reference to criteria the country had to meet during its almost six years of accession talks.

Some of the protestors, mostly older people, waved Croatian flags reading "I love Croatia, No to EU" while some were dressed in blue T-shirts with the letters EU crossed out.

"We are part of Europe anyway. We don't want to have masters above our heads, but to be really independent," Mile Grgas, a 77-year-old sculptor, told AFP.

Anica Zanetic, 44, lamented that by entering the bloc Croatia would "lose its sovereignty."

"We just left one association and they are pushing us towards another," she said, referring to the socialist Yugoslav federation from which Croatia proclaimed independence in 1991. The move triggered the four-year war with rebel Serbs who opposed it.

Meanwhile, at a separate gathering campaigning for joining the EU, Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said that the outcome of the referendum was a "question whether Croatia would secure its future."

In the case of 'no' the country's credit rating would be very likely downgraded and it would also affect its investment security, she warned.

"The decision in the referendum is in a way the decision about Croatia's economic survival," Pusic said.

The country of 4.2 million, whose economy is based notably on Adriatic tourism, has been in recession for most of the time since 2009. The national bank puts 2011 growth at a modest 0.4 percent and forecasts a 0.2 percent fall in gross domestic product (GDP) this year.

Croatia signed the EU accession treaty in December, enabling it to formally become the bloc's newest member in mid-2013. The treaty has to be ratified by all 27 member states.

The latest survey showed that almost 58 percent of around 60 percent of Croatians who would definitely take part in the referendum, back EU membership. Twenty-three oppose it, according to the poll released earlier this month.

After Slovenia in 2004, Croatia should become the second of the six republics that made up Yugoslavia to join the bloc.