A leaflet sent by various local councils alongside voting cards for the Ukraine referendum on April 6 was actually written by PostNL, the Volkskrant revealed on Saturday.

Fifteen local authorities, including Amersfoort, made use of the PostNL offer to send out the leaflet together with the voting cards, the paper said.

The leaftlet outlines the aims of the EU’s treaty with Ukraine and summarises the arguments for and against but has been criticised for toeing the government line.

PostNL told the paper in a reaction that the leaflets are a ‘service’ for local councils and that the text is based on information from the referendum committee and the election council. The referendum committee, however, says it does not provide information about the arguments.

The leaflet is also a commercial product which was sold to the councils, the PostNL spokesman said. The Volkskrant does not say how much the leaflet cost councils, but says Amersfoort now regrets its involvement with the product.