Dutch Deal a Body Blow to Dying European Union

In repudiating closer links with Ukraine the Dutch electorate has delivered a further body blow to the EU, already on the point of fragmentation under the strain of its toxic currency, the migration crisis and the threat of Brexit. American commentators were already calling the Netherlands referendum Nexit before the vote, recognising the anti-EU sentiments that animated the No camp. There are echoes of 2005, when 61.6 per cent of Dutch voters in an earlier referendum voted down the proposed EU constitution, as the French had already done. In 2007 it was resurrected, cosmetically disguised as the Lisbon Treaty. Such a subterfuge would not be tolerated today by an increasingly angry European electorate. The situation is especially embarrassing for the Dutch government of prime minister Mark Rutte, since the Ukraine agreement was endorsed by parliament and has technically been in force since 1 January.