With just three months to go until the European deadline, The Hague is struggling with the implementation of the Migration Pact. The government is urging swift action, but both the House of Representatives and the Senate still have many questions.
The European Pact on Asylum and Migration will come into force on 12 June 2026. The pact, comprising nine regulations and a directive, aims to better harmonise asylum and migration rules within the European Union. To implement the Pact, every European country must bring its national legislation into line with the new Pact. This means that the Dutch implementing legislation for the Migration Pact must also come into force before 12 June. However, the government has not yet reached that stage. A number of laws still need to be amended, including the Aliens Act 2000.
Many MPs still have numerous questions, as evidenced by the 138-page document containing no fewer than 447 questions addressed to the Minister for Asylum and Migration. The questions mainly concern the way in which the Netherlands intends to implement European rules. With the deadline approaching, politicians are stepping up the pressure. Minister Bart van den Brink (CDA), Minister for Asylum and Migration, wrote to the House of Representatives on 11 March stating that the bill must be debated ‘as soon as possible’. If this cannot be achieved in time, it will lead to ‘legal uncertainty’, the minister argues.
Read a more extensive version of the article on SmallStreamMedia.
