The Dutch parliament has defeated a motion calling for the country to pull out of a treaty establishing closer European Union ties with Ukraine.
The EU-Ukraine deal was rejected by a majority of voters in a nonbinding referendum earlier this month.
Seventy-five Dutch lawmakers voted against the motion -- brought by the Euroskeptic Socialist Party -- with 71 in favor in the 150-seat lower house.
On April 6, more than four million people, accounting for about 32 percent of some 12.8 million eligible voters, cast their ballots in a nonbinding referendum with 61 percent rejecting the pact with Kyiv.
The deal has already been ratified by 27 other EU states, and was being provisionally implemented even in the Netherlands after being approved last year by both houses of Parliament.
