BELGIUM: The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte refuses to condemn anti-eastern European website

Record ID: 760483

  • Title: BELGIUM: The Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte refuses to condemn anti-eastern European website
  • Date: 2nd March 2012
  • Summary: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (MARCH 1, 2012) (REUTERS) EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT EUROPEAN FLAG FLYING
  • Embargoed: 17th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium, Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5WLVIWYIBT57CXYBWDOZHQ4YG
  • Story Text: The Dutch Prime Minister refused on Thursday (1 March) to bow to public and EU pressure by banning a controversial website launched by a key parliamentary ally which invites the Dutch public to post complaints about Poles and other eastern Europeans living in the Netherlands.
    The website, called "Report central and eastern Europeans", was launched by Geert Wilders' far right PVV party on February 8. It encourages people to post complaints about Polish, Bulgarian and other eastern European immigrants, particularly if they had lost their job to an immigrant from one of those countries.
    "This mass labour immigration causes many problems: nuisance, pollution, labour market competition, and integration and housing problems," said the website.
    The site has caused outrage among Central and Eastern European communities within and outside the Netherlands. The European Commission was also swift to condemn the website, saying it ran against European principles of freedom of movement.
    On Thursday Martin Schulz, the President of the European Parliament added his voice, arguing that all EU countries have a duty to fight racism.
    "For the European Parliament I think the answer is quite clear. Once more, we are really condemning the website, I must add, we were shocked that the PVV is not the only party with such websites, there are similar websites in other countries of the European Union and we must fight against such a development of xenophobia and racism in all the member states of the European Union," said Schulz.
    The PVV gives the Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition a majority and its popularity has grown on the back of its tough stance on immigrants, notably Muslims but also from European countries, including EU members such as Poland.
    On Thursday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte once again refused to condemn the website, arguing that it was a party issue for the PVV and did not represent the views of his government.
    "I have reiterated our position that the website is not coming from the Dutch government, that we are in favour of the European laws on eastern and European migration and that I am not commenting on every initiative from the PVV, so on this initiative I will not give further comments," said Rutte.
    The PVV controversy comes on the same day that Rutte is due to attend the EU Summit in Brussels. Here he will have to face further criticism from his Eastern European counterparts for his decision to block the expansion of the Schengen (open borders) Area to include Bulgaria and Romania.
    Rutte denied that he was opposed to Bulgaria and Romania joining in principle but said that necessary conditions must be me first.
    "We are not against Bulgaria and Romania joining Schengen. What we want is absolute guarantees that the Schengen criteria have been implemented on the ground and we need positive reports from CVM (Cooperation and Verification Mechanism) which will support that position which will make clear that you were doing everything which is necessary to implement the Schengen criteria. So far, that has not happened, you have made progress, but not enough. And that will be the debate tonight," said Rutte.
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