Croatians vote yes on joining EU

ZAGREB, Croatia – Croatians voted Sunday in favor of joining the European Union despite a poor turnout for the referendum – a sign of how much the debt-stricken 27-nation bloc has lost its appeal within countries aspiring to join.

Croatia’s state referendum commission said that with nearly all ballots counted, about 66 percent of those who took part in the referendum answered “yes” to the question: “Do you support the membership of the Republic of Croatia in the European Union?”

About 47 percent of eligible voters took part in the referendum, illustrating voters’ apathy toward the EU. That compares to 84 percent who voted in a referendum for Croatia’s independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

“The people are obviously tired,” Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said. “It would have been better that the turnout was larger, but that’s reality.”

It was among the lowest turnouts in any of the EU states that have held accession referendums before they joined. Nearly 46 percent took part in the vote in Hungary, while more than 90 percent voted in Malta.