President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko intends to visit Brussels late October to raise the issue of ratification of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, an UNIAN correspondent reported referring to Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Kostyantyn Yeliseyev.
”We are making preparations for the president`s visit to Brussels, which is scheduled for the second half of October. During this visit, we will raise the issue of ratification and search for an amicable compromise concerning the ratification of the Association Agreement both with the EU and with our partners in the Netherlands,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv.
”We will find this compromise since there is a clear agreement between the president and the prime minister of the Netherlands that any decision to be adopted should take into account the interests of the three parties, namely Ukraine, the Netherlands, and the EU as a whole,” Yeliseyev added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, in July 2015, the Dutch government completed the procedure of ratification of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement.
However, on April 6, 2016, a referendum was held in the Netherlands regarding the Deal. 61% of votes were cast against the move to sign off the agreement, with only 38% in favor.
The European Commission and Ukraine both await proposals from the Dutch government regarding further steps following the referendum.
On September 22, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that his country would be unlikely to sign off a trade deal between the EU and Ukraine given the negative outcome of the earlier non-binding referendum on this issue.
Despite months of diplomatic efforts to come up with a solution, Rutte told on Thursday: ”I think that ultimately we will not ratify [the trade agreement],” The Financial Times reported.
