Leader of the Socialist Party of the Netherlands Harry van Bommel has offered that the Dutch Parliament vote for a decision, obliging Ukraine to sign an additional political document concerning the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, Europeiska Pravda reports.
The proposal will be considered February 23 following a vote for a government-offered bill on ratification of the Ukraine-EU deal.
”Having heard the debate, the State Council [an advisory body to the Dutch government] comes to the conclusion that the legal adoption of a ”binding declaration” is necessary, which should be the response to the outcome of the referendum, where 61% of the voters stood against the association agreement,” van Bommel`s motion reads.
The proposal says that a supplementary agreement ”strictly speaking, does not affect Ukraine” but rather aims at ensuring that the government follow up on the will of the voters in the process of ratification of the agreement.
Recall, the accord on the ratification of the association agreement, which has been achieved in the past year, was framed as a ”decision of the heads of states and governments of EU member states.”
The decision includes six provisions dedicated to the Association Agreement. However, they do not change the content of the agreement, but only confirm the rules that have already been laid in the text.
Earlier, the Dutch Parliament (Second Chamber) has secured the required number of votes to support the bill introduced by the government, with a proposal to ratify the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement.
23 February 2017
Van Bommel`s motion reads: “61% of the voters stood against the association agreement,”
Yes 61% of the voters (2,509,395) on a a total of 12,862,658 persons who are eligible to vote. The turnout was only 32.28%.
Unfortunately the silent majority in favor of the Association agreement did not vote. And van Bommel can try as he likes, but he cannot change the fact that the Association Agreement will be signed by the Netherlands. Opposition parties Democrats66 (D66) and GreenLeft (GroenLinks) supported the government parties in the House of Representatives.
Other opposition parties, 50Plus, the Party for Freedom (PVV), van Bommel’s Socialist Party (SP), Party for the Animals (PvdD), Christian Union (CU) and the Party For the Netherlands (VoorNederland, VNL) voted against. Also the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) voted against.
The Dutch upper house (Senate, 75 seats) will vote on the deal within the next few weeks, after the elections.
The Senate does not participate in the 2017 Dutch general elections on March 15. It is the election of the150 members of the House of Representatives only.
And in the Senate it is a different story concerning the CDA. There, certainly a part of the CDA parliamentarians will support the position of the government. With the support of VVD (13 seats), PvdA (8), D66 (10), GreenLeft (4) and Independent Senate Group (OSF) (1) the government needs the support of only two votes from the CDA (out of 12) to get the Association Agreement through the Senate. And that will certainly happen, because it is known that many CDA members are in favor of the Association Agreement. And besides, after the General Elections they are more free to vote in favor of it.