On 6 April 2016, the Netherlands will go to the polls to vote in a referendum on the EU’s Association
Agreement(AA) with Ukraine. The referendum is a special democratic event – 427,939 signatures of
citizens were collected to make it possible. But what exactly is the Dutch electorate voting on and why
does the Transnational Institute campaign for a No vote?
The paper describes the current status and nature of Ukraine’s economy and models the possible
consequences of the Free Trade Area (FTA) that is a core component of the Association Agreement
between the EU and Ukraine. The projections build on an overview of Ukraine’s economic development
since the early 1990s up until the signing of the Association Agreement.