Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Dutch counterpart on implementation of the EU's Association Agreement with Ukraine; and what assessment he has made of the prospects for ratification of that agreement by the Netherlands.

The Dutch referendum result is a matter for the Dutch government and parliament. At the end of last year, the December European Council agreed a solution proposed by the Dutch Prime Minister to pave the way for ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in the Netherlands. This seeks to respect the April 2016 Dutch referendum result in a way which is acceptable to the Dutch parliament and the 27 other EU Member States who have already ratified the Agreement, and which will allow ratification of the Agreement to proceed.