Slovak PM Fico urges end to referendum `adventures` in EU
"I am asking EU leaders to stop with adventures like the British and Italian referendums (...) on domestic issues which pose a threat to the EU," said Fico, whose country handed over the rotating six-month EU presidency to Malta on January 1.
"Britain is not a eurozone country, Italy has a huge impact on the banking sector, the euro.
"What will we do if ... there is a referendum in Italy on the euro and Italian citizens decide they don`t want the euro," Fico told reporters.
In Slovakia the small far-right People`s Party has started a petition to call a referendum on the country`s membership of the EU and of NATO, though it is unlikely to pass. Even if the party raises the 350,000 signatures needed, legal rules require a 50 percent turnout for the vote to be valid.
More than 90 percent of Slovak voters on a turnout of 52 percent voted for the country to join the EU in a 2003 referendum. Slovakia joined the bloc in 2004 along with the Czech Republic and eight other, mostly eastern European nations.
/Reuters/