KIEV (Sputnik) — In late June, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that the Netherlands did not rule out changes in the text of the EU-Ukraine agreement for its ratification, and that the European Union should provide "legally binding" assurances to address the concerns of the Dutch people who voted against the association deal ratification.
In April 2016, Dutch voters rejected the parliamentary decision to ratify the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in a non-binding, advisory referendum.
According to Tombinski, EU countries at a meeting of the Council of Europe claimed they did not decide on amendments to the Association Agreement, which would force the EU countries to re-ratify the agreement.
In 2014, the European Union signed an agreement with Ukraine to deepen political association and economic integration. Ukraine has to implement a series of political and economic reforms to gain free-trade access to the EU market.
Currently, the Netherlands is the only EU state, which has not yet ratified the agreement.
