At the beginning of April the Dutch government and society sent a clear signal to Kiev that Ukraine’s accession to the EU is impossible.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared that Ukraine will “never” join the EU. According to Amsterdam, Kiev today needs to establish good relations with the EU and Russia. It is clear that after the April 6 referendum the Dutch society does not support the idea of Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
Kiev’s foreign policy is built on claiming that Russia is the aggressor. This idea helps Ukraine’s government to cover the flourishing iniquity and corruption in the country. Kiev just promises to bring the country to European standards. The Ukrainian mass media quote the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement that the Ukraine will not stop its integration into the EU. Kiev takes out European loans with no intention to ever pay them back. This is how the Ukrainian leadership acts in the framework of “European integration”. It is obvious that new insolvent state within the EU will cause new economic difficulties.
In an ill-conceived attempt to promote European values, Kiev increases the gap between the government and the Ukrainian society. For example, the majority of citizens reject the idea of LGBT support, but the country’s leaders persistently promote it. It is obvious that this is one of the issues that cause rising tensions in the Ukraine.
Moreover, Ukraine has an official conflict zone – two unrecognized republics of Donbass – which declared independence from Kiev. The country’s leadership has started military actions against its own citizens, bashfully calling them “anti-terrorist operations”; at the same time it declares that the Ukraine is at war with Russia.
Witnessing all of Ukraine’s problems, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte concluded that this country “should never join the EU”. It is worth noting that, unlike the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who promised Kiev to join the EU “in twenty years,” Rutte used the word “never”. It is obvious that the Dutch Prime Minister expressed the attitude of the majority of his country’s citizens.
Moreover, no one should forget that the Ukraine and the EU’s rapprochement could affect negatively EU – Moscow relations. Neither Europe, nor Moscow wishes it to happen, no one but Ukraine. Anti-Russian sanctions have already undermined relations between Moscow and European countries, which resulted in economic losses on both sides. Today, Europe has a choice – either Russia or Ukraine. Apparently, the choice will be made not in favor of the latter.
Obviously, the citizens of the Netherlands are not interested in Ukraine’s joining the EU due to the fact that this would entail negative consequences for the whole Europe.