On 19 April 2016, the Dutch Parliament rejected a motion initiated by the Socialist party that called for the immediate rejection of a law to ratify the Association Agreement of the EU with Ukraine. It follows the earlier negative result of the non-binding referendum, that was held in the Netherlands. The motion was rejected by a narrow majority, 75 against and 71 votes in favour. Earlier the week before, it was decided that the Dutch Government would be given time until the summer to consult with other EU partners on what to do with the agreement, or at least until after the referendum by the UK on whether to leave the EU on 23 June 2016. In the meanwhile, EU-Ukraine relations are further fostered. Although unrelated to the agreement, visa liberalisation has recently been proposed by the European Commission.

The Dutch had gone to the polls earlier on 6 April 2016, during which 61% voted against ratification of the Association Agreement, while 38,21% voted in favour, during a non-binding referendum which was held on the agreement. The turnout of 32,28% narrowly passed the necessarily threshold of 30%.

The vote turned out to be awkward for the Dutch government, that currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU. The opposition parties have criticized the government for not taking the referendum seriously, although it was un-binding, and the turnout was low, having narrowly passed the threshold. It remains to be seen what the exact (political) consequences will be of the referendum. For now, the vote in the UK has to be awaited.

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An analysis on the Dutch referendum about the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement has been written by Robert Steenland, a research intern at the Centre for International Relations.