Europe is divided over many issues, and one of them is the future association with Ukraine. For example, Dutch people do not overwhelmingly approve the Association agreement between Ukraine and EU. The Netherlands held a referendum which showed the sentiment on the deal in the country. Referendums are common for a democracy and they are not usually brought into great focus. The thing is that according to exit polls, around 64 percent of Dutch people are not willing to go into partnership with Ukraine.
The turnout was low with only 32 percent of eligible voters participating in the referendum. Anyways, it may cause difficulties for the European Union. Being a non-binding referendum, the vote may nevertheless give a headache for Brussels and the Dutch government. Incumbent Prime Minister Mark Rutte was kept at a distance from the referendum, and only the last day before the vote he urged voters to support the ratification of the agreement with Ukraine. Apparently, those calls remained unheard and preliminary results showed that the majority of the Dutch are against the association. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said it was an attack on European unity, an attack on the spreading of European values.
