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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, June 15, 2003

Czechs Vote in Favor of EU Membership

Czech voters give massive support to their country's membership in the European Union at the referendum on June 13-14, the official results indicate Saturday.


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Czech voters give massive support to their country's membership in the European Union at the referendum on June 13-14, the official results indicate Saturday.

According to the statistics by the Czech Statistical Office, 77.33 percent of the 8 million eligible voters favor EU membership, with 22.67 percent opposed.

Some 55.2 percent of the registered voters cast ballots, although the poll is certain to stand as there is no minimum turnout requirement.

Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla has described the outcome as an excellent result, adding that his country will come back to be part of a family of European nations and have an equal opportunity to take part in EU affairs.

"This is a success for all Czech citizens," said Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda.

The binding referendum is the first ever held in the central European country of roughly 10 million people. There will be no need for the Parliament to ratify the treaty on the Czech Republic's accession to the EU.

The Czech Republic is the seventh of the 10 candidate countries to hold a referendum on the accession to the EU. Malta, Slovenia, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland had already voted in favor in their respective referendums earlier this year, while Cyprus does not plan to hold a ballot on the issue. Polls are still to take place in Estonia and Latvia this September.

The 10 candidate nations signed an EU accession treaty at an Athens summit on April 16. They are expected to join the EU on May1 next year after the agreement is ratified by the parliaments of 15 current member states of the organization.


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