Brussels, 13/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, Commissioner for Fundamental Rights Viviane Reding criticised the initiative by the Dutch PVV party of Geerd Wilders to create a website denouncing nationals of the new member states, especially Poles, Romanians and Bulgarians, describing the initiative as a “call for intolerance”.
In Europe, we “stand for freedom” for an “open continent where citizens can move, work and study wherever they like”, Reding pointed out in a press release, stating that the PVV's website (a hotline inviting the Dutch to report all their problems with these nationals) runs “totally counter to these principles (…), openly calling for people to be intolerant”. The commissioner went on to call to the citizens of the Netherlands not to follow this initiative and to use it instead to remind the PVV that Europe is a “place of freedom”, where “intolerance has no place”.
On Friday 10 February, the S&D Group also reacted, describing the hotline as “sickening”, as Sylvie Guillaume put it. On behalf of the EPP, Joseph Daul also spoke out against a project which “goes against all the European principles of freedom” by inciting “hatred towards one group”.
On Monday 13 February, however, the European Commission explained that its options for action remained limited at this stage. Although the PVV website does run counter to European principles, particularly those contained in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, it does not come within the framework of the implementation of European legislation, a condition to allow the executive to take action, Matthew Newman, Reding's spokesperson, explained again - nor is it an “initiative of the Dutch government”, he said.
The Dutch government has yet to take position on the website, Prime Minister Mark Rutte having so far declined to speak out against the initiative against his political colleagues, with whom he has an alliance over economic and immigration issues, amongst others.
According to the Polish press agency PAP, the ambassadors of 10 new member states have in any case written to the Dutch political parties, asking them to distance themselves from the PVV project.
For his part, Geerd Wilders has hailed the “success” of his idea, announcing that it has already gathered 32,000 posts since its launch last Wednesday. (SP/transl.fl)