Dutch voters reject EU-Ukraine agreement
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Dutch PM Mark Rutte casts his vote in a referendum on an Eu-Ukraine treaty, in The Hague, on April 6, 2016. (AFP photo)
The majority of voters in the Netherlands have rejected a European Union (EU) trade deal with Ukraine in a recent referendum.
Provisional results released by public broadcaster NOS on Wednesday show that about 61.1 percent of voters opposed the EU’s Association Agreement with Kiev, while only 38.1 percent supported the deal.
According to pollster Ipsos, the voter turnout was 32.2 percent, just above the minimum threshold of 30 percent for the referendum to be acceptable to parliament and considered valid by the government.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said it was clear that the opponents of the deal had won by an overwhelming margin, adding that voter turnout would determine the referendum’s validity.
“If the turnout is above 30 percent with such a large margin of victory for the no camp, then my sense is that ratification can’t simply go ahead,” the premier said.
Although the EU agreement is already provisionally in place, it must be ratified by all of the bloc’s 28 member states in order for it to be fully implemented.
The vote is seen as a blow to closer links between the EU and Ukraine. The other 27 EU nations have already voted in favor of the deal.
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