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		</div><p>The polls have opened in the Netherlands in a referendum on a far-reaching free trade deal meant to foster closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union.</p>
<p>Dutch opponents of the EU-Ukraine association agreement argue its ultimate goal is bringing Kiev into the EU.</p>
<p>Supporters say it is not a membership stepping stone and will boost trade and help battle corruption and improve human rights in the former Soviet republic on Europe&#8217;s restive eastern edge.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after voting: &#8220;It&#8217;s about solidarity with a country which wants to develop itself and I believe, in (the) longer term, I would like for Ukraine to have both a stable relationship with Europe and with Russia.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dutch politician Geert Wilders, a fierce opponent of the EU, said he hoped the vote would give hope to other nations questioning their place in Europe.</p>
<p>After casting his ballot at a school on the outskirts of The Hague, Mr Wilders said the Dutch referendum could act as an incentive to British voters to reject the European Union in June.</p>
<p>&#8220;So it could be today that it is the start of the end of the European Union as we know it today and that would be very good,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Much of the deal between the EU and Ukraine already is being provisionally implemented but the Netherlands&#8217; ratification, approved last year by both houses of Parliament, was put on ice pending the outcome of the referendum.</p>
<p>Exactly what will happen to the agreement if the Dutch vote against it remains unclear, but politicians all say Mr Rutte&#8217;s coalition government will have to take the result seriously. The advisory referendum is declared valid only if voter turnout is over 30%.</p>
<p>The Netherlands is a founding member of the European Union, a trading nation that benefits from the EU&#8217;s internal market, but paradoxically it also is a hotbed of Euroscepticism that rejected the bloc&#8217;s proposed constitution in a 2005 referendum.</p>
<p>In an interview earlier this year with a Dutch newspaper, EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker warned that a &#8220;No&#8221; vote &#8220;would open the door to a great continental crisis&#8221;.</p>
<p>The referendum, the first in the Netherlands since the country rejected the EU constitution, was forced by a loose coalition of Eurosceptics that managed to gather nearly 430,000 signatures in just six weeks last year.</p>
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