The Netherlands-Romanian Chamber of Commerce (NRCC) recently added its voice to the chorus of international condemnation of Dutch far right party's anti-Eastern European website. The website, set up by Dutch PVV, Geert Wilders’ anti-immigration party, encourages Dutch citizen to complain about central and eastern European immigrants – Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, in the Netherlands, and has been condemned by politicians, diplomats and the public since its launch.

“This initiative is a flagrant infringement of the most fundamental values of the European Union and in fact of any democratic value. The PVV is a marginal right wing populist party which has no consideration or respect for fellow Europeans and has as its core policy the aim to create division and a climate of suspicion and hatred in the society” says Peter de Ruiter (in picture), chairman of the NRCC, and partner with PwC Romania.

“We believe it is time for the Government in the Hague to act now on the issue of Romania’s membership in Schengen and not to postpone the decision until the next EC report under the CVM in June. We invite all Dutch politicians to visit Romania such that they can see that the reality of Romania is very positive and much different than the popular belief that seems to reside these days in the Netherlands”, he added.

The NRCC also wrote to the Dutch PM. “To the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte urging him, on behalf of the Dutch Government and the Dutch people he represents, to firmly distance himself from the actions of his fellow ‘coalition party’ and initiate legal action to oppose, speak out against the xenophobia and the destruction of the significant and important steps made in respect of a European peaceful cooperation and integration,” reads the NRCC letter.

Read more about the website launched by PVV here.

Moreover, the chamber of commerce salutes the conclusions of the recent interim report released by the European Commission on the progresses made by Romania under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. “The conclusions of the EC report state that Romania has made substantial progress on all the areas under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. At the same time, the officials of the European Commission made it very clear that no connection should be made between Romania’s bid to join the Schengen zone and Romania’s developments in the field of judicial and internal affairs. We are therefore asking the Dutch Government to change its’ singular stance on the issue of Romanian accession to the Schengen area,” said Peter de Ruiter.

Read more about the EC report here (PDF version).

Romania and Bulgaria were originally to be included in the Schengen area in 2011, but opposition from several EU states held up the process. Although the rest of the EU has since approved Romania and Bulgaria’s application, The Netherlands has maintained resistance to the proposal.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: PwC)