Netherlands seeks exemption from EU immigration policy – News

The Netherlands has sent a request to Brussels for exemption from the Common Asylum and Migration Policy, Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber announced.
“I have just informed the European Commission that I want to abolish the immigration option for the Netherlands. We have to deal with our asylum policy again,” she wrote in a letter to X. In her letter, the Dutch far-right asylum minister said: Geert Wilders informed the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Ylva Johansson, of the Hague government’s desire to “significantly” reduce immigration to the Netherlands “in order to continue fulfilling the constitutional obligations” of the country: “to provide public housing, health care and education.”
Opting out is one way in which the executive, led by Prime Minister Dick Schiff, aims to implement “the toughest asylum policy ever.” To obtain an exemption, an amendment to the European treaties is required, requiring the unanimous approval of all 27 member states. In the past, some countries have managed to snatch an opt-out when the EU was busy negotiating new rules in specific sectors such as defense, but migration policy is largely managed at European level.
An EU spokesman said in recent days that the Netherlands had “already agreed” to the new pact on migration and asylum “and in the EU in general, there is no demand to deviate from the adopted law”.
Currently, only three Member States have opted out at least once. Denmark has said “no thanks” to the euro and has also withdrawn from defence and security cooperation and justice. Ireland benefits from an exemption from the Schengen agreements on freedom of movement and in criminal and judicial matters. However, Poland has an opt-out from the binding application of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Before Brexit, the UK had a record of opting out, including on the euro, the Schengen area, and justice and home affairs.

“We do not expect any immediate changes to the rules,” a spokeswoman for the European Commission said, confirming that she had received a letter from the Netherlands asking for an exemption from the common asylum and migration policy.
In her letter, the Dutch minister acknowledged the legal requirement that “withdrawal is only possible within the framework of a reform of the EU treaties,” a possibility that Brussels rules out immediately. “We welcome the minister’s statement that until then, the Netherlands will continue to implement the EU Migration Pact,” the EU spokeswoman stressed.

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