Dutch PM gets six more weeks to win support for adjustment of EU-Ukraine treaty

The Dutch parliament on Wednesday gave Prime Minister Mark Rutte six additional weeks to come up with a solution to the Dutch referendum that rejected the Ukraine-European Union (EU) Association Agreement.

Instead of rejecting the treaty the Dutch government aims for an adjustment do partly justice to the Dutch "no" vote and then ratify an adjusted Agreement. Rutte will continue to negotiate with EU partners in the forthcoming period.

Rutte had agreed with the House of Representatives (De Tweede Kamer) that the government would make known what to do with the outcome of the referendum before Nov. 1. Last week he made an appeal to opposition MPs to support him.

In an advisory referendum on April 6, 61 percent of Dutch voters said no to the law that approves the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine. The turnout stood at 32.28 percent, just above the 30 percent threshold to make the results valid.

The treaty between the EU, their 28 member states and Ukraine touches on political, economic and a broad range of legislation and regulation topics. The referendum results are under the Dutch law not binding but the outcome forced the government to reconsider the Agreement.

According to Rutte, a Dutch rejection of the treaty would be bad for the international relations and for the stability in Europe.

The Dutch government thinks of a declaration by states and governments stating that the Association Agreement is no step towards or an entitlement to EU membership for Ukraine, not imposing member states an obligation to military cooperation, no access for Ukrainian workers to the EU labor market, nor an obligation to provide financial support to Ukraine.

But Rutte needs support from opposition parties and in addition the other European governments have to agree with the adjustment. He hopes the adjustment could be accepted during a European Council summit on Dec. 15 and 16 in Brussels. Endit