THE HAGUE, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The Dutch Senate voted by large majority in favor of the European Union-Ukraine Association Agreement on Tuesday, by which the Netherlands has now also formally agreed to the treaty.
The Dutch have a bicameral system with two houses of Parliament, the House of Representatives, the Tweede Kamer, and the Senate, the Eerste Kamer. Laws have to pass both houses to be approved.
With the majority of the vote in favor of the law of approval related to the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, a long Dutch discussion comes to an end. The law was already accepted by the Senate and the House of Representatives in 2015, but in April last year a referendum was held on the subject.
In the advisory referendum a vast majority of 61 percent of the Dutch voters rejected the Agreement, a treaty between the European Union, their 28 Member States and Ukraine on political, economic and a broad range of legislation and regulation topics. The referendum results provided an opinion and are, according to the Dutch law, not binding, but the outcome forced the government to reconsider the Agreement.
Considering the referendum result, the Dutch government has long searched for a solution to approve the treaty and also respect the result of the referendum.
Last year the Dutch agreed with other European leaders that there would be an appendix in the treaty, which states that the treaty for Ukraine is not automatically a step towards membership of the European Union, nor does it mean that workers from Ukraine can now easily work in the EU.
"Nice support for Ukraine," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reacted to the Senate vote result through Twitter. "Unified acting of the European Union is important."
Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, was also satisfied. "Today's vote in the Dutch Senate sends an important signal from the Netherlands and the entire European Union to our Ukrainian friends: Ukraine's place is in Europe. Ukraine's future lies with Europe," he said in a statement.
"I would like to thank the Dutch government and the leadership of other parties for their efforts in bringing this process to a positive conclusion," Juncker added. "We are nearly there. Our Association Agreement is now one step closer to being ratified. I would like to see the process now being finalized swiftly, in time for the EU-Ukraine Summit in July."
