Everything You Need To Know About The Netherlands’ Vote On Ukraine

What You Need To Know:

✅ The Netherlands is voting on whether to ratify the EU’s Association Agreement with Ukraine
✅ The referendum will occur on April 6
✅ The “No” campaign has successfully mobilized so far
✅ “No” campaigners appeal more to emotion than to policy, while the “Yes” side has been making arguments about the economic and political benefits, Gumenyuk reports.

Hromadske journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk was in the Netherlands to argue in favor of passing the referendum. She told The Sunday Show that the “No” voters were more motivated by a sense of grievance towards Brussels than by knowledge or direct opposition to more direct ties with Ukraine.
“It’s not just Ukraine, it could be any other issue,” said Gumenyuk in a Skype interview from London.

“No” campaigners have powerful arguments, Gumenyuk said, that appeal more to emotion than to policy, while the “Yes” side has been making more abstract arguments about the economic and political benefits of approving the agreement.
“It’s very hard to argue with emotional arguments,” Gumenyuk noted.
But, Gumenyuk added, the ignorance surrounding the referendum may point to deeper issues in how the EU goes about conducting its foreign policy towards new potential member states.

“In general, European legislation is not perfect, and there are a lot of loopholes,” Gumenyuk said. “No one really knows what to do with the referendum.”
Nataliya Gumenyuk, a Hromadske journalist, joined Josh Kovensky of Kyiv Post via Skype from London on February 28, 2016.