The Hague: The Dutch government approved a draft law needed to ratify the EU’s historic pact with Ukraine after reaching a compromise with Brussels following a referendum in which Dutch voters rejected the deal.
“The Dutch cabinet... finds it is necessary to ratify this accord,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said of the draft law, which still needs approval from parliament before the Netherlands can sign up to the deal with Kiev.
“Cabinet will (now) table the law as soon as possible,” the Dutch cabinet added in a statement.
The EU previously agreed the cooperation pact and an associated free trade agreement with Ukraine in 2014 after pro-EU protestors ousted Russia-leaning president Viktor Yanukovych who fled to Moscow.
But Dutch voters opposed the deal on the grounds it opened the door to Ukraine’s membership of bloc and amounted to a defence guarantee for a country already embroiled in bloody conflict with Russia.
EU leaders at its summit, gave Rutte special pledges limiting defence commitments to Ukraine, and saying the accord does not entail future membership for Kiev.
The Netherlands is now set to become the final EU nation to ratify the agreement.
Rutte had warned that a collapse of the deal would have been “biggest ever present” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The law will now be sent to the Dutch government’s highest advisory body, the State Council, for an opinion, before being tabled for parliamentary approval.
It is likely to be approved by the lower house and will be then sent to the upper house.
“There is however still a big question mark” whether the law will pass in the Senate, a Hague-based political source said.
Rutte’s coalition government does not have a majority in the 75-seat upper house, the final hurdle before the law can be approved.
Even Rutte admitted that he was not sure whether the law would be confirmed before crunch parliamentary polls, set to be held on March 15 next year.
But the premier was upbeat, saying he believed “there’s a big chance that majorities will be reached in both houses of parliament.”
Rutte “still has a long political road” ahead over the Ukraine deal, Dutch public newscaster NOS said.
“It will probably take until after parliamentary polls before there will be clarity whether the upper house agrees with the deal,” it added.
Rutte has been walking a political tightrope since the non-binding plebiscite organised by Dutch eurosceptic groups in which—despite a low turnout -- 60 percent of those who voted rejected the accord with Kiev.
Rutte yesterday again caught heavy flack from some opposition politicians including from anti-Islam Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, who opposes the pact and called on the embattled premier “to step down”.
The referendum’s organisers also criticised compromise deal. “It’s merely a solution for Rutte’s failure: 61 percent of voters do not want a compromise—they said ‘No’,” referendum organiser Jan Roos said.
