A Dutch voting committee approved on Oct. 14 a request for a non-binding referendum regarding the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
New laws in the Netherlands made it possible
for its citizens to demand a referendum on almost everything.
Backed by a news
blog best known for its political commentary and satire, a group called
GeenPeil collected some 420,000 signatures, surpassing the 300,000 threshold,
to demand a non-binding referendum on the Association Agreement between Ukraine
and the European Union that’s meant to establish closer political economic ties between
the EU and Ukraine. It is expected that the referendum will be held in March or
April.
On July 7, the Netherlands already ratified the Ukraine-EU pact, so the vote cannot undo this approval.
However, as a gauge of public sentiment, it is expected that most people will vote against the pact. If that happens, the Dutch parliament needs to vote again on the issue of ratifying the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement.
The ruling coalition in the Netherlands has a solid, pro-EU majority and politicians have said they will not change course in supporting closer Ukraine-EU ties, regardless of the referendum.
After the Dutch voting committee approved the requested
referendum, Prime Minister Mark Rutte insisted that the long-awaited trade deal
with Ukraine is good for Europe as well as for the Netherlands. During the
upcoming months, the Dutch government will explain to its citizens why closer economic ties with Ukraine will benefit
the Netherlands.
Rutte welcomed the initiative of GeenPeil, though, saying
it’s an example of Dutch democracy but not significantly persuasive enough to change the nation’s foreign policy.
As of Oct. 14, 22 of the 28 EU-member states had
completed the ratification of the agreement. It requires unanimity to have the
pact take full effect, so the EU has introduced plans to “provisionally apply”
the trade deal starting on Jan. 1.
Although the Netherlands is a founding member of the European
Union, in recent years the country has seen a rise of an anti-EU sentiment amid
immigration controversies from poorer new EU member states such as Romania and
Bulgaria. Many Dutch people fear that a visa-free regime for Ukraine will lead
to immigration to Western Europe, for example.
The anti-EU Freedom Party of right-wing populist Geert
Wilders has been actively supporting the request for a referendum. His anti-EU
party is at the moment also the biggest in the polls that show the rise of
EU-skepticism in the Netherlands.
The GeenPeil campaign triggered some reactions on the Internet,
claiming pro-Russian groups were in charge of the campaign. The
conservative-liberal party of Rutte described the organizers behind GeenPeil as
“friends of Vladimir Putin”.
The initiative was started due to concerns with the
expansion of the European Union and a lack of democracy in Brussels, the
political capital of the European Union.
“With this referendum we hope to introduce a new debate
about the lack of democracy in Brussels and the EU’s continuing expansion
drift,” the GeenPeil campaigners explained, led by Jan Roos, a reporter for
news blog GeenStijl and the GeenPeil campaign leader.
Roos said earlier that “Ukraine is on the brink of EU
membership. We think people should be consulted about a possible EU expansion.”
The Association Agreement does not automatically mean that Ukraine
will become a EU member, but GeenPeil argues that many new EU member states
first started a trade pact with the EU before obtaining EU-membership, naming
Croatia as one example that joined the EU on July 1, 2013.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, also, repeatedly stated that, “the country will
be prepared to apply for EU-membership”.
Stefan Füle, the former European commissioner for enlargement and
European neighborhood policy, said in March 2014 as well that Ukraine “must
become an EU member.”
EU critics praised the GeenPeil campaign including several
far-right parties.
Nigel Farage of Britain’s UKIP
party, who wants the UK to exit the EU, said that the result of GeenPeil showed
that “not just the British are tired of EU forcing laws, expenses and migrants onto
them without their consent”.
Oleh Ustymenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, responded to the upcoming referendum. “We’ve been longstanding
partners with the Netherlands, and we believe that a referendum will not change
the Dutch government’s mind about Ukraine.”
