To the chagrin of the EU’s governing elite, a ‘ballot box rebellion’ in a single state again threatens to derail a major initiative years in the making. On Wednesday, a referendum in the Netherlands asked whether the government should ratify the European Union’s March 2014 Association Agreement with Ukraine: 61.1% of those that voted, said ‘no’.
Ukrainian lawmakers rumble during a debate at a session of parliament in Kiev, Ukraine 17 March, 2016
The result is non-binding. Yet at 32%, turnout crossed the threshold requiring the Liberal-Labour coalition government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, which strongly supports the Ukraine agreement, to ‘consider’ …read more