Is he now destroying the EU’s asylum policy?

The Netherlands is demanding an exception to the EU asylum rules. But the consequences are unlikely to please right-wing populist Geert Wilders either.

Geert Wilders may not be sitting at the cabinet table in The Hague himself, but his right-wing populist Party for Freedom (PVV) has been the strongest force in the Dutch government since July. The party’s most important election promise was to curb immigration to the Netherlands – and the PVV is now pushing ahead with this plan.

In a letter to the EU Commission on Wednesday, Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber of the PVV is now demanding exceptions to the asylum rules in Europe. The Netherlands would have the strictest immigration rules in all of Europe, the minister explained. In addition, the Netherlands also wants to introduce stricter border controls following the example of Germany, announced Faber.

Will the move from the Netherlands now undermine European asylum rules? An overview of the most important questions.

In a letter to the EU Commission, the Dutch asylum minister Marjolein Faber is calling for an “opt out” – an exception for her country – from the European asylum rules. These stipulate, for example, that people must apply for asylum in the first EU country they enter. If an asylum seeker is rejected in one EU country, he or she cannot apply for asylum in another EU country. The rules also contain a “solidarity mechanism” that provides for the distribution of refugees within Europe.

The letter to the EU Commission does not specify which exceptions the Dutch government is demanding. However, according to Faber, the exemption for the Netherlands will be negotiated during the next renegotiation of the European treaties. However, the Netherlands is not questioning the EU migration pact, which came into force in June and has been negotiated for years.

Several EU countries have already negotiated exceptions to certain Union rules in the past. For example, Denmark and Ireland are exempt from the Schengen Agreement, which abolished border controls in the EU in 1990.

Although the Schengen Agreement was integrated into the European treaties in 1997, since both countries were not part of the original agreement, they were not required to adopt the provisions after 1997. Since 2001, Denmark has applied the Schengen rules voluntarily and does not have permanent border controls. Ireland is suspending the Schengen rules in order to avoid border controls with British Northern Ireland.

Following the announcement from The Hague, the Hungarian government also announced that it would request an exit from the EU asylum rules if a change to the EU treaties allowed this. Other EU governments have not yet commented on the Dutch government’s initiative.

For the Netherlands and other countries that follow its example, a departure from European asylum rules could have unexpected consequences. It is conceivable that other EU countries could send asylum seekers to the Netherlands if their asylum application has been rejected in another EU country. If the Netherlands were to depart from EU rules, asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected in the EU would still have the right to apply for asylum in the Netherlands.

Great Britain experienced a similar scenario. The number of asylum seekers there initially increased after Brexit. To avoid similar consequences, the Netherlands would have to conclude bilateral migration agreements with individual countries to regulate the return of rejected asylum seekers.

The Netherlands’ application for an exemption from EU asylum rules is unlikely to be successful in the foreseeable future. According to the Dutch Immigration Council, the country could only be exempted from the common migration policy by amending the EU treaties. This would require the consent of all 27 member states. This is not very likely, as the number of asylum seekers in the EU would then have to be distributed among fewer member states.

The Dutch government could therefore only achieve its goal by renegotiating the existing EU treaties. In an initial statement on the letter from The Hague, the EU Commission has already made it clear that such renegotiations are not to be expected in the near future.