Ukraine to continue course toward EU despite Dutch rejection: Poroshenko

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday his country will not give up its aspirations for European integration despite a "No" vote in a Dutch referendum on the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement.

"We will not turn off the road to European integration," Poroshenko said in a statement published on his official website.

Underlining that the referendum is non-binding and the final decision on whether to ratify the Ukraine-EU cooperation deal still depends on the Dutch government and parliament, Poroshenko voiced his hope that the voting will not become an obstacle for Ukraine on its path toward Europe.

"I would like to emphasize that Ukraine will keep on implementing the Association Agreement," Poroshenko said.

The comprehensive Association Agreement, which includes a free trade deal and a broad range of legislation and regulation topics, was signed in 2014 and entered into force at the beginning of this year.

The Netherlands is the only country in the 28-nation EU that still has to ratify the agreement, although the deal has been approved by both the upper and lower house of the Dutch parliament.

On Wednesday, Dutch voters cast their ballots in the referendum to decide whether or not to ratify the deal.

According to preliminary results, around 61.5 percent voted against the agreement, while 37.7 percent voted in favor and 0.8 percent of the votes were invalid.

The Dutch Electoral Council will present the official results on April 12 in The Hague. Endi