(Bloomberg) -- The Dutch government asked the European Union to opt out of its migration and asylum agreement even as the bloc said the request is impossible to implement without changing its core treaties.
The EU executive was just informed that “I want a migration opt-out within Europe for the Netherlands,” Marjolein Faber, the minister of asylum and migration and a member of the far-right Freedom Party, said Wednesday in a post on X. “We need to be in charge of our own asylum policy again!”
The move comes after the government last week announced plans to tighten border controls and enact a new crisis law that would freeze decisions on asylum applications and, if necessary, forcibly deport people.
The Dutch request faces stiff obstacles, with Brussels already saying that a withdrawal isn’t possible since the asylum law is binding on all member states.
“We take note of the letter and also the fact that the minister acknowledges that the opt-out is only possible in view of the treaty changes,” European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper told reporters Wednesday.
“We do not expect any immediate changes on the EU rules on asylum and migration which continue to be binding on the Netherlands,” she said.
Infighting over migration policy led to the collapse of former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s cabinet last year. The topic dominated the subsequent election, as many parties blamed the severe housing shortage on the number of refugees and migrants in the country.
The Freedom Party of far-right politician Geert Wilders delivered a shock victory in the November ballot. It now heads a four-party coalition, and holds more ministries than any of its partners.
Over 38,000 people submitted asylum requests in the Netherlands in 2023, up 8% over the previous year, the Dutch statistics agency said.
Last year, the population grew by nearly 132,000 after the country received around 137,000 migrants from abroad. If it wasn’t for migration, the Dutch population would have fallen by 5,000 in 2023.
Many leading Dutch companies, including chip-machine maker ASML Holding NV, rely heavily on talent from elsewhere. Foreign workers and global ties are key to the Netherlands’ economic success, the nation’s central bank chief Klaas Knot said earlier this year.
--With assistance from Lyubov Pronina.
(Updates with fresh EU response starting in first paragraph)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
