MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — On Wednesday, 61.1 percent of Dutch voters rejected the EU-Ukraine association deal’s ratification in the advisory referendum, according to preliminary results. A turnout of 32.2 percent passed the 30-percent threshold to give the public vote legal weight.
"No state within the EU, unless it is forced to do so by a constitution, is ready to grand a referendum on any matter concerning the bloc because they know that an outcome would be negative: there would be no EU zone, no EU bank, would be no EU. It would be rejected on the referendum, probably, in all of the states within the bloc," Johannes Hubner said, a member of the Austrian parliament from the right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), told Sputnik on Monday.
According to the lawmaker, bloc's national governments are working "hand in hand with the European Union" against a clear majority of the EU population and therefore they cannot afford to hold referendums.
The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement was signed in 2014. The Netherlands is the only member state that has not yet ratified the accord. The Dutch government decided to hold a non-binding referendum after over 400,000 people signed a petition to put the matter to a nationwide vote.
