Brussels, 15/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday evening, the S&D Group at the European Parliament in Strasbourg called on the Dutch government to condemn the initiative of its ally, the Freedom Party of Geert Wilders (PVV), which calls on the Dutch to use a hotline to denounce nationals from the new member states, particularly Poles, Romanians and Bulgarians. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, however, again refused to denounce this project on Tuesday. He affirmed that this was not an initiative of his government and that he could not comment on the ideas and initiatives of other political parties. The PVV is the political ally of the Rutte government and they have both reached an agreement on a number of questions, particularly immigration but not European affairs, as previously explained by the prime minister last week.
The S&D believes that this explanation does not hold water because the PVV, which provides support to the minority centre-right government, “has a direct impact on the policies implemented by the government. By failing to condemn this initiative, it indirectly supports” its discriminatory nature. The S&D believes that the Rutte government is obliged to assure Europeans that they will not be discriminated against or stigmatised in the Netherlands. The S&D believe that the Rutte government must take action to ensure the free movement of workers (the Netherlands is still imposing limitations on foreign nationals to its labour market) and to ensure the respect of European provisions on tackling discrimination based on race or ethnic origin.
On Tuesday 14 February, the Commission explained that at the present moment it was unable to go any further in its action against the PVV. Viviane Reding simply denounced the project in a press release. There are directives against discrimination and laws against incitement to racial hatred and xenophobia. It is up to citizens to use the national courts to uphold these provisions, explained Matthew Newman, a spokesman for Commissioner Reding. As a last resort, he explained, citizens could go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. On Tuesday, the leader of the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt, said on the radio that the government could not remain silent on the issue. (SP/transl.fl)