The US is upset about the results of the referendum on the EU membership of Ukraine held in the Netherlands, but it respects the will of the citizens, State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said. Recall that on April 6th a referendum was held in the Netherlands on Ukraine's Association Agreement with the European Union, which was signed in June 2014. The Agreement comes into force after it is ratified by the parliaments of all 28 EU countries. Although the referendum is only advisory, the will of the people of the Netherlands could make the country's leadership reflect on the desirability of its ratification.
The final voting results will be announced on April 12th. Preliminary data shows that 38.1% voted in favor of ratification of the agreement, 61.1% opposed it. The turnout was 32.2%, which is more than the 30% necessary for the recognition of a valid vote.
The director of the International Institute of the Newest States, Alexey Martynov, said that the referendum results were expected. According to him, European bureaucrats do not like that citizens should decide the future of the EU or the future of their countries: "They would like to make decisions in a bureaucratic way for everyone, as it was before. An important precedent was established in the Netherlands, when a plebiscite is held on an issue related to the future of the entire EU. The eurobureaucrats hoped that there would be no attendance. But I must say a big thanks to Mr. Soros and his Ukrainian activists, whom he had brought the day before and organized aggressively in a Ukrainian festival-style election campaign throughout the Netherlands. Of course, the Dutch did not like this: strange people dressed in yellow and blue were shouting out something, insisting on something. In this sense, the old traditional Europe is not like Ukraine. This added interest to the passing referendum, everybody learned about it after the aggressive, obsessive campaign, and decided to come out and vote against it, despite the fact that it was a working day in Holland.
The expert believes that if such plebiscites are held in other EU countries, the result will be the same: "Europe faces the challenge of the migration boom, the migration flows from the Middle East, from North Africa. There is no difference for the European from where the flow is. There is a migrant flow from Ukraine. They may be not requiring the refugee status, but nevertheless. These weird people who join the ranks of the criminal organizations in Europe. It is easier for the Ukrainian migrant dissolve in the European crowd than for the same character from the Middle East or North Africa. Therefore, the Dutch voted against the Ukrainian Assosiation. The Dutch government can now put the question beofre the Parliament on the revision of the decision on the ratification of this agreement. I think that it will be reviewed. The elections will be held soon, no one will risk in the Netherlands, ignoring the referendum, ignoring the public opinion.''
