The EU Solution to Deal with the Dutch Referendum Result on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement

Abstract

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2016 1(3), 1305-1309 | European Forum Highlight of 22 December 2016 | (Abstract) On 15 December 2016 the EU Member States adopted a Decision to prevent a non-ratification by the Netherlands of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. The Decision seems to address the main concerns of the Dutch 'no' voters expressed through the national referendum on the act to approve the Association Agreement. Yet, the fact that only a limited number of the signatories to the Agreement decide on a 'legally binding' interpretation of key elements in the Agreement is somewhat peculiar from a legal perspective. International treaty law offers a number of solutions to deal with objections of parties to certain elements in agreements. While acknowledging that mixed agreements are complex legal instruments and that creative legal solutions may help solve political problems, the legal solution chosen by the European Council should not form a precedent; also in view of the number of new mixed agreements that are to be concluded to coming years.

Keywords

• eu-ukraine cooperation
• association agreement
• dutch referendum
• european council
• mixed agreements
• international agreements