The new Dutch coalition government headed by Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom party (PVV) appears to be on a collision course with the EU over immigration after formally asking Brussels for an opt-out on asylum rules.
“I have just informed the European Commission that I want an ‘opt-out’ on migration matters in Europe for the Netherlands,” the asylum and migration minister Marjolein Faber, a member of the PVV, said on X on Wednesday.
“We have to be in charge of our own asylum policy once more!” she added. The four-party coalition, which took office in July after elections last November, has promised to introduce the country’s “toughest ever” policy on immigration.
The move is not expected to get a positive reception in Brussels or many of the bloc’s other capitals since all 27 member states – including the Netherlands – agreed last December a new EU-wide migration and asylum pact after years of talks.
“You don’t opt out of adopted legislation in the EU, that is a general principle,” the European Commission’s chief spokesperson, Eric Mamer, said last week, referring to the Dutch government’s intentions. Experts in the Netherlands have also expressed serious reservations.
“A Dutch opt-out can only be realised by amending the treaty,” said the Advisory Council on Migration, an independent body that advises the Dutch government and parliament. “This is not very likely, because the number of asylum seekers must then be distributed among fewer other member states.”
Denmark, Ireland and Poland have previously secured opt-outs from EU treaties in different policy areas including the euro, the bloc’s area of freedom, security and justice, the passport-free Schengen zone and the charter of fundamental rights.
All were negotiated as part of the treaty, not afterwards. The Dutch request is widely seen as having almost no chance of success, not least since it could open the door to similar demands from other increasingly anti-immigration governments.
The opt-out demand is unrelated to the new government’s aims to declare a “national asylum crisis”, which would allow it to implement significantly harsher immigration measures without the approval of the Dutch parliament.
These include a freeze on new applications, limiting visas issued for family members of people granted asylum, making living conditions as basic as possible and accelerating the deportation process for those not eligible for asylum.
Presenting the policy last Friday, the Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, said the country could not “continue to bear the large influx of migrants”. King Willem-Alexander said in a speech to open parliament on Tuesday that the government’s goal was a “faster, stricter and more modest” asylum system.
Legal experts have questioned whether the Netherlands’ asylum system can be fairly described as “in crisis”, noting that its problems are largely the result of government funding decisions rather than an external event such as war or natural disaster.
According to EU data, the Netherlands received two first-time asylum applications per 1,000 residents last year, matching the average across the bloc, with 10 member states – including Greece, Germany and Spain – reporting higher ratios.
After years of budget cuts, however, the only Dutch registration centre for asylum seekers, in the small village of Ter Apel in the north-east of the country, has been repeatedly overwhelmed, occasionally leaving hundreds to sleep outdoors.
Wilders’ nativist PVV finished a shock first in last year’s elections but the far-right, anti-Islam firebrand struggled to form a government and was eventually forced to concede he did not have enough support from would-be coalition partners to be prime minister.
Their refusal to accept some of his more extreme policies had already resulted in him ditching several anti-constitutional proposals, including bans on mosques, the Qur’an and Islamic headscarves as well as a “Nexit” referendum on leaving the EU.
Two months after its formation, cracks are already emerging in the coalition, which also includes the populist farmers’ party, BBB; the rightwing liberal VVD, long led by the former prime minister Mark Rutte, and the anti-corruption NSC.
The NSC’s acting leader, Nicolien van Vroonhoven, said this week her party’s MPs would not vote in favour of the proposed immigration measures if they were not fully approved by the Netherlands’ top advisory body, the Council of State.
Wilders responded furiously, saying on X: “I would have another hard think. The Netherlands has a huge huge asylum crisis and it will not be solved by running away in advance and threatening with the NSC to vote no.”
