The cabinet confirmed on Thursday a coalition-sponsored motion to put the border arbitration agreement with Croatia to a referendum held prior to ratification in the National Assembly.
While confirming the motion put forward by the SocDems, LibDems, Pensioner's Party (DeSUS) and Zares for a consultative referendum, the cabinet simplified the question by eliminating passages from the agreement.
Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar said after the cabinet session that the government decided that "it is right to seek the opinion of the citizens on such an important question".
The government has decided for this opinion in line with Slovenian law as well as democratic tradition, under which the people can be asked to decide directly on key government policy, Zbogar added.
With the motion, the government has beaten the opposition to calling a referendum. The important difference is that the opposition has sought a legislative referendum, which would be held after the motion is passed in parliament.
In announcing the motion, the coalition said that it makes more sense for the people to decide on the arbitration agreement before it is voted on in parliament.
Another difference is that the consultative referendum is not binding on parliament like a legislative referendum, but Zbogar said that this will not reduce its importance. He expects the decision to be fully respected.
To simplify the question, the government crossed passages from the agreement that were included in the question proposed by coalition officials last week.
The government proposes that the people be asked: "Do you agree that the arbitration agreement for the settlement of the border between Slovenia and Croatia signed in Stockholm on 4 November be implemented?".
Additionally, the government has proposed that the full wording of the arbitration agreement be published in the media and at polling stations as part of the referendum campaign.
Zbogar said that the question proposed by the government is virtually the same as that proposed by the opposition in its efforts to call a legislative referendum. He assessed that the legislative referendum will therefore be unnecessary.
However, the opposition was dissatisfied with the government motion. The Democratic Party (SDS) said the logical step would be to ask people before the agreement was signed, but now the only logical step would be a legislative referendum.
As it is, the government is only shifting responsibility for bad decisions to the people, the SDS said in a press release, adding that the consultative referendum should also ask people whether they agree the border issue be resolved before Croatia's accession to the EU.
The People's Party (SLS) said a consultative referendum would only make sense if it also asked people if they agreed with Slovenia's backing Croatia's accession to the EU, but only if the latter withdrew from Slovenian territory and if Slovenia kept territorial contact with high seas.
The government motion for the referendum will head to parliament now after the government already sent the ratification bill for the agreement to parliament on Tuesday.
However, the passage of the document has been frozen for the time being, as the government has also sought an opinion of the Constitutional Court on the agreement.
The court said today it would give an absolute priority to the agreement. It said it would start working on the case immediately, while it could not be said when the ruling would be made.
The court must clear the agreement before parliament can begin to debate it. This may take a few months and Pahor said recently that the vote on ratification is not expected to take place before late winter or early spring.
Parliamentary Speaker Pavel Gantar explained to the press today that the decision for or against a referendum will come in parliament, since the government does not call referendums nor decide on the referendum question. It merely adopts an opinion to a proposal for a consultative referendum, he added.
It is also the task of the initiators of the referendum, of the parliament's legal service, the National Assembly and the responsible working body to determine the date of the referendum. Gantar expects the date to be set once the Constitutional Court presents its opinion.
Law professor Rajko Pirnat meanwhile told STA that the constitutional review means that "other procedures related to the agreement are on hold".
According to him, the government cannot put the bill on the ratification of the agreement to parliament before it gets the ruling of the Constitutional Court. "This probably also means that parliament will not adopt in advance the motion on a referendum held prior to ratification," Pirnat added.
The cabinet confirmed on Thursday a coalition-sponsored motion to put the border arbitration agreement with Croatia to a referendum held prior to ratification in the National Assembly.
