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2003 Estonian European Union membership referendum

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Field	Value
title	Are you in favour of joining the European Union and adopting amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia?
date
country	Estonia
yes	369,657
no	183,454
invalid	2,724
electorate	867,714
map
mapcaption	For
Against {{legend	#DEDEBD	50%–60%	border	1px #AAAAAA solid}}

Against

A referendum took place on 14 September 2003 to decide whether Estonia should join the European Union (EU). Just over two-thirds of voters voted Yes and Estonia joined the EU on 1 May 2004.

As of 2025, this was the most recent referendum in Estonia.

Background

Membership of the European Union was one of the main objectives of Estonian foreign policy since independence in 1991. Estonia was invited to begin negotiations to join the EU in 1997 and was formally invited to join at a summit in Copenhagen in December 2002. The Parliament of Estonia then announced that a referendum on membership of the EU would be held in mid September 2003.

Referendum question

The question to be voted on in the referendum was agreed by the Government of Estonia in December 2002. It was:

Are you in favour of the accession to the European Union and passage of the Act on Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia?

Campaign

Opinion polls in the first half of 2003 showed only lukewarm support for membership. This persuaded leading politicians including President Arnold Rüütel, Prime Minister Juhan Parts and the Speaker of Parliament Ene Ergma to start campaigning hard for a Yes vote.

The economy was one of the main issues used by both sides in the referendum campaign. Supporters of joining the EU said that it would fuel growth and create more jobs, while opponents said that EU entry would slow the growth of the Estonian economy. Opponents also argued that Estonia should not go straight from one union, the Soviet Union, into the EU.

The Yes campaign had strong media, political and financial backing with the Estonian Centre Party being the only leading party against entry into the EU. As the vote neared, polls showed increasing support for the Yes camp with one poll showing 70% support for EU entry.

Results

References

(2009-08-05). "Timeline: Estonia". [[BBC Online]].
(2002-12-18). "Stockholm sets euro vote question". [[BBC Online]].
(2002-12-18). "Estonian parliament to hold EU referendum". Ireland On-Line.
"EU Referendum 2003: Information". Estonian National Electoral Committee.
"EU Referendum New". City Paper.
(2003-09-15). "Estonians Say "Jah" to the EU". [[Deutsche Welle]].
(2003-09-14). "Estonia expects EU yes vote". [[BBC Online]].
Cecil}}{{dead link, Clem. (September 2024). "Estonia endorses 'sexy men' of EU". [[The Times]].
(April 2019). "Estonian support for EU entry rises to 70 percent". Gateway To Russia }}{{Dead link.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

2003-referendums referendums-in-estonia referendums-related-to-european-union-accession 2003-in-estonia 2003-in-international-relations 2003-in-the-european-union estonia-and-the-european-union september-2003-in-europe

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