mr president the history of croatia is in some ways the story of a series of political unions contracted by a ruling elite without the consent of the people first the union with hungary then that with the habsburg monarchy then the short-lived kingdom of serbs croats and slovenes and then of course the yugoslav federation
so it is progress of a kind that at least the ordinary people of croatia will have the final word over eu accession
under the current constitutional arrangements a referendum must be held within thirty days of the contraction of the accession treaty
i think there are real losses potentially to croatia
it is a country with an educated and industrious workforce that could do extremely well pricing itself into the market and exploiting the advantages of relatively cheap exports but i am a democrat and of course if the people of croatia vote in favour of eu accession if that is their considered will then i will support their bid when it comes before this chamber
i just raise the question of why some of the existing member states should not also consult their people on the issue of continued membership
on a major constitutional issue of this sort it seems quite proper that the existing politicians should not be allowed to make permanent derogations of sovereignty without first asking the permission of those they represent
our parliamentarians are not the owners of our freedoms
they are their temporary and contingent custodians and if they want to alienate power from westminster they should have the courtesy to ask our permission
