The European Union has accepted The Hague’s proposed compromise to EU-Ukraine Association Agreement
The resolution requested by the Netherlands on the introduction of additions to the text of EU-Ukraine Association Agreement was adopted at the European Union Summit, which took place on December 15 in Brussels. In the resolution, agreed upon at the Summit, the European Union legislatively entrenched the provision that Ukraine will not be granted EU candidate country status concurrent with the signing of the Association Agreement.
The majority of voters in the referendum that was held in early April in the Netherlands opposed the signing of Agreement. The Dutch harbor reservations that once the document is adopted by the European Union it would automatically open the door to Ukrainians and Kyiv would apply for allocation of funds from the European budget.
Following lengthy discussions, representatives of The Hague proposed to Brussels a compromise in the form of added provisions to the text of Association Agreement. First, these provisions would exclude the guarantees of granting EU membership to Ukraine. Following amendments agreed upon at the Summit in Brussels, the text of the Agreement would be put to a vote in the Dutch Parliament.
The leader of the Party for Freedom, Geert Wilders, who was recently convicted of hate speech, previously stated that he intended to raise a motion of no confidence against the government in case of a positive result.