On December 8, the Dutch Parliament passed a resolution calling on its government to advocate in Brussels for the temporary suspension of visa liberalization for Serbia if it does not comply with the European Union’s visa and foreign policy.
The proposal has received the support of the governing coalition and opposition MPs. It was submitted by two MPs from the two largest parties in the governing coalition, Jeoren van Weinharden from the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and Sjord Sjordsma from the Democratic Party. However, the proposal was also supported by the representative of the opposition, the Socialist Party (SP), Jasper van Dijk.
MP Jeoren van Weinharden shared on Twitter that the proposal received the support of the House of Representatives of the Dutch Parliament.
“The Lower House supports our proposal for a stricter approach to Serbia if President Vucic does not support sanctions against Russia. Completing Serbia’s EU accession process may become an option. We will not hesitate to use it,” Van Weinharden said.
In the institutional system of the Netherlands, the Parliament has the mandate to give instructions to the government for the development of foreign policy. For example, when the Netherlands blocked the opening of negotiations with Albania, such an initiative came from the parliament.
The resolution of the Dutch Parliament calls for the suspension of visa liberalization for Serbia through the emergency suspension mechanism until March 2023 at the latest, “given that Serbia is increasingly undermining the EU’s foreign policy due to of its benevolent attitude towards Russia and not in accordance with the EU sanctions, but also the non-harmonization of the visa regime, therefore during 2022 a large number of irregular migrants crossed into the EU precisely through Serbia”.
According to the Treaty of Lisbon, in the European Union there are two types of this procedure. One that is related to the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the other that applies to other areas, such as cooperation in the fight against crime and social security.