.svg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
10–11 May 2003 (2003-05-10 –2003-05-11) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I am for Lithuania's membership of the European Union. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Results | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|---|
 |
Legislature |
The2003 Lithuanian European Union referendum took place from 10 May to 11 May 2003 to decide whetherLithuania should join theEuropean Union (EU). Over 90% of those who voted supported membership and Lithuania joined the EU on 1 May 2004.
Lithuania was invited to begin negotiations to join the EU in December 1999 at aEuropean Council summit inHelsinki and was formally invited to join the EU in December 2002 at a summit inCopenhagen.
In June 2002 and February 2003 theLithuanian Parliament amended Lithuania's laws onreferendums. Previously, for a referendum to pass, 50% of the voters had to vote and over 50% of all eligible registered voters had to support the proposal. After the amendment only a simple majority of participants in favour was required for the referendum to pass, while still having the requirement forturnout to be over 50%. To help reach the turnout requirement, the voting hours were extended, postal voting was allowed for 11 days before the referendum, and a second voting day was added. In January 2003 parliament then set the date for EU referendum to be the 10–11 May and set the question for the vote.[1][2]
Lithuanian voters were asked to vote yes or no to the statement:
I am for Lithuania's membership of the European Union.[1]
An information campaign on the European Union was begun in 2000 and involved theElderships of Lithuania and theCatholic Church. Opinion polls, which at the end of 1999 had only 29% supporters of the EU, showed a steady rise in support in the years leading up to the referendum.[1]
Virtually all of Lithuania's majorpolitical parties supported membership of the EU and opinion polls as the date approached showed about 65% of voters would vote yes.[3] ThePresident of LithuaniaRolandas Paksas, who once competed inaerobatics competitions, flew around Lithuania in his plane performing stunts to raise enthusiasm.[4] The campaign was very one-sided with only a poorly organised No campaign based on milk producers,Russian speakers andright wing nationalists.[1]
The biggest concern for the yes campaign was whether turnout would reach the 50% required for the referendum to be valid.[3] After the first day of voting turnout was only 30% and both the President Paksas and Prime MinisterAlgirdas Mykolas Brazauskas appeared on TV to urge Lithuanians to vote.[5] Main reason for worry was that turnout might be as low asin Hungary just a month ago.
There was a surge in voting on the Sunday with many people voting after church services.[6] Lithuaniansupermarkets also had a campaign on the second day of voting, offering cheaper beer,carbonated soft drink, chocolate and soap to those who showed they had voted.[1] In the end there were queues outside somevoting booths and turnout was over 60%, safely over the required level.[7][8]
| Choice | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| For | 1,504,264 | 91.07 | |
| Against | 147,527 | 8.93 | |
| Total | 1,651,791 | 100.00 | |
| Valid votes | 1,651,791 | 98.77 | |
| Invalid/blank votes | 20,526 | 1.23 | |
| Total votes | 1,672,317 | 100.00 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 2,638,886 | 63.37 | |
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver[9] | |||
Celebrations were held in Lithuania's capitalVilnius following the referendum. Aconcert was held near thePresidential palace, President Paksas addressed the crowd saying "Hello Europeans!" and thePrime MinisterAlgirdas Brazauskas and parliamentaryspeakerArtūras Paulauskas cut a referendum cake. TheEuropean Commission PresidentRomano Prodi congratulated Lithuania on the referendum result.[10]
{{cite news}}:|archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)