Europe no longer wants association with Ukraine
The feasibility of an association between the EU and Ukraine will be called into question at a referendum in the Netherlands, where the kingdom's electoral council announced a decision to hold a plebiscite after more than 300 thousand Dutch people signed a petition, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports.
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The publication notes that the initiative to hold a referendum belongs to a group of Dutch activists, Geenpeil, who oppose EU enlargement and, in particular, rapprochement with Ukraine.
“Initially, the petition was published and was not even taken seriously,” the newspaper recalls. – However, the idea very quickly began to gain popularity: thousands of Dutch people opposed the association with Ukraine. As a result, in a few weeks the petition collected 427 signatures (with the required minimum of 939 thousand). Moreover, even after careful checks by the Electoral Council commission, only a thousand signatures were canceled. After which it was decided to hold a plebiscite, which, according to Dutch law, should take place within the next six months.”
At the same time, the publication admits that the results of the referendum will not have legal force, since the kingdom’s parliament had already ratified the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU in July of this year, and the agreement itself was signed back in June 2014 and came into force on November 1 of the same year , with the exception of certain provisions of the economic part of the document.
At the same time, the Dutch themselves believe that this is a very important vote for the socio-political life of the country.
“This referendum is an opportunity to give ordinary Dutch citizens a chance to have their voice heard,” RG quotes one of the Geenpeil activists, Jan Ross.
“At the same time, experts note that such a referendum will have consequences for all EU states, because in fact, none of the participating countries asked for the opinion of citizens when signing the association agreement with Ukraine,” the publication summarizes. “But as it turns out, not all Europeans are happy with this development of the situation.”
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