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EU Accession Referendums in the Baltic States

Albi, Anneli (2003) EU Accession Referendums in the Baltic States. Tilburg Foreign Law Review, 11 (3). pp. 653-670. ISSN 0926-874X. (doi:10.1163/221125903x00159) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:1806)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
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Abstract

A little more than a decade ago, the Central and Eastern European Candidate Countries established strong constitutional guarantees for safeguarding their re-gained sovereignty. In order to legitimise EU membership, they are now revising the pouvoir constituant’s recent pact for sovereign governance and holding accession referendums.

Probably most sensitive of all has the issue of referendum been in the three Baltic countries. This article takes a closer look and provides an overview of the process and procedures concerning referendums in the Baltic states. The first part outlines the types of referendums and their main procedural differences. The second part discusses the political and procedural tensions concerning the accession referendums, which have led to a delicate manoeuvring and, to some extent, changes of the rules in the middle of the game in all three countries. Now, ahead of EU membership, they are revising the pouvoir constituant’s recent pact for exclusively domestic exercise of powers and are in the process of amending their constitutions and holding accession referendums, in order to legitimise the delegation of sovereign competences for exercising them jointly with EU Member States.The final part shows that these procedures are not just an internal problem of the Baltic Countries - they are may also become also relevant for the EU future debate as concerns the revision of the EU treaty amendment procedure.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1163/221125903x00159
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Depositing User: A. Davies
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2007 19:14 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2023 11:29 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/1806 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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