October 11, 2010



National Assembly President Tsetska Tsacheva and other members of the parliament met with members of the steering committee proposing to hold a national referendum on the membership of Turkey in the European Union. The meeting was held on the request of Tsetska Tsacheva.

After the meeting, the speaker of the parliament told news media representatives that the Committee has collected over 330,000 signatures of citizens who favor the holding of a referendum on the issue of Turkey’s membership in the European Union and has submitted the petition to the assembly in mid-July.

Tsetska Tsacheva stressed that the Act on Direct Participation of Citizens in State and Local Governance contains contradictory texts preventing parliament from taking action. So the needed amendments in the current law will be considered this week allowing the parliament to take stance on the petition next Wednesday, October 20, 2010. She explained that the current version of the law does not contain an imperative rule on who will verify the validity of the signatures, something which the amendments will fix. She explained that meanwhile a working group composed of MPs and members of the steering committee will work on the best wording of the referendum’s issue.

"We could consider a wording to the effect that the National Assembly will vote for a referendum on Turkey's membership before pronouncing on the matter," said Krassimir Karakachanov, leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, who is a member of the steering committee. "We want the question of Turkey's future membership to be decided by a referendum in which Bulgarians will give their opinion, and the National Assembly will ratify the treaty after the public has pronounced on the matter," he said.