Yahoo – AFP,
Jan HENNOP, May 30, 2017
An anti-government opposition activist places European Union and Ukrainian flags side by side at a barricade in Kiev on February 2, 2014 (AFP Photo/SERGEI SUPINSKY) |
The Hague
(AFP) - Dutch senators backed a hard-won compromise Tuesday to ratify an
amended EU-Ukraine pact, clearing one of the final hurdles for approval of the
deal to help nudge Kiev closer to the West.
The draft
bill was approved by a vote of 50 to 25 in the upper house of parliament in the
Netherlands, the only EU state yet to ratify the pact aimed at steering Ukraine
away from its former Soviet masters in Moscow.
"This
is the last parliamentary step," for the amended deal to be approved,
senate spokesman Gert Riphagen said.
Dutch Prime
Minister Mark Rutte, whose liberal VVD party won a general election in March,
sought a compromise after Dutch voters rejected the initial pact in an April
2016 referendum.
Rutte is
now expected to return to Brussels with the Dutch go-ahead once the measure is
signed into law which could happen as early as Thursday.
In
Brussels, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said, "Our
Association Agreement... is now one step closer to being ratified."
The vote
sent "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," Juncker said in a statement.
He added
that he would like to see the process finalized in time for the EU-Ukraine
summit in July.
Dutch
officials said European bodies expected the accord to enter into force around
September 1.
In Kiev,
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko thanked Rutte and his country for their
support.
"The
path to this point was long and much more complicated than Ukraine imagined at
the start of the process," Poroshenko said on his Facebook page.
But he
hailed the treaty as "a guarantee of our freedom, independence and
territorial integrity. Europe is our civilizational choice."
Moscow
however angrily retorted that the ratification "of this famous accord will
give the authorities in Kiev a bit more time to cultivate the fable of a
'radiant European future'."
"Kiev
will continue to pretend not to foresee the rapid transformation of Ukraine
from a developed industrial state into an agrarian appendage and a source of
raw materials for the EU," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria
Zakharova told Russia's TASS news agency.
The
rejection of the original EU-Ukraine treaty by eurosceptic groups had dealt a
blow to Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte (pictured) and his coalition
government (AFP Photo/Bart Maat)
|
Treaty
rejected
The
original treaty deal was opposed by eurosceptic groups in the Netherlands who
forced the issue to a referendum.
About 60
percent of voters rejected the treaty, though turnout was barely above the 30
percent needed for the results to be validated.
The
rejection dealt a blow to Rutte and his coalition government at a time when the
Netherlands was at the helm of the EU's rotating presidency.
Rutte
managed to work out a compromise deal that limits the EU's defence commitments
to Ukraine and does not provide any guarantees to Kiev of full EU membership in
the future.
The lower
house of parliament had approved the amended pact by a large majority in
February.
Rutte,
however, has caught flack from opposition politicians and the organisers of the
referendum, who accused the Dutch leader of ignoring the voice of voters by not
rejecting the agreement out of hand.
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