Dutch House of Representatives passes resolution: ‘Impose visas on Serbs, if that doesn’t help – we have another option’

The House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament has adopted a resolution calling on its government to advocate in Brussels for the suspension of the visa-free regime for Serbia.

The motion was tabled because, as they point out, Serbia is not aligned with the European Union’s visa and foreign policy. The proposal had the support of both the ruling and opposition parties in the House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament, foreign media report.

The request was tabled by representatives of the two largest parties in the ruling coalition, Jeroen van Weingarden of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of the Democrats 66. The proposal itself was initiated by a representative of the opposition.

Jeroen van Wijngaarden boasted on Twitter that his proposal had been endorsed by the lower house of the Dutch Parliament.

“The Chamber of Deputies supports our proposal for a tougher approach towards Serbia if President Vucic does not support sanctions against Russia. An option could be to suspend Serbia’s EU accession process. We will not hesitate to take advantage of this”, Van Weingarden said.

The day before the resolution was tabled in Parliament, State Secretary for Justice and Security Erik van der Burg answered MEPs’ questions on increased migration through Serbia.

He said that the government “shares the concerns of European Commissioner Ilva Johansson about the increased flow through Serbia and sees the need to counter the flows of migrants through the Western Balkans”, but also welcomes Serbia’s steps to harmonise visa policy with the EU and will continue to monitor developments and apply pressure where necessary.

In the Netherlands, the Parliament has a mandate to give the government guidance on the conduct of foreign policy. For example, when the Netherlands blocked the opening of negotiations with Albania, the initiative came from Parliament.

The Dutch Parliament’s resolution calls for the suspension of the visa-free regime for Serbia with an emergency brake mechanism by March 2023 at the latest, as stated, ‘given that Serbia is increasingly undermining the EU’s foreign policy due to its good relations with Russia and its disregard for EU sanctions, but also due to the inconsistency of its visa regime, which resulted in a large number of irregular migrants from Serbia entering the EU in 2022’./Danas/