Three Dutch lessons about visas

Being direct and honest is Dutch pride. Along with the bike and the lack of curtains on the windows

Dutchman Sven Kramer had just won the Olympic gold medal in figure skating. Immediately after the race, an American journalist started the interview by asking him his name, the country he represents and what he had won. Kramer replied: "Are you crazy? I don't respond to this nonsense." This response from the Dutch skating legend best captures a key feature of Dutch society. The Dutch are direct. How are you asking me for my first and last name when I just won my Olympic medal? What's wrong with you? So the Dutch speak their mind and consider anything less than that to be hypocrisy. Being direct and honest is Dutch pride. Along with the bike and the lack of curtains on the windows. 

But in less entertaining subjects like politics and international relations, the Dutch also pride themselves on another quality: the rule of law. The rule of law is one of the main features of the Netherlands' foreign policy. This is why The Hague is synonymous with justice. The Hague houses the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, the Special Court for Lebanon, the Special Court for Kosovo, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and EUROJUST, among others. The Hague has also hosted the former International Tribunal for Yugoslavia, the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the former Special Court for Sierra Leone, among others. So, in short, the Dutch have the rule of law close to their hearts, so it shouldn't have been a surprise when, in the visa liberalization process for Kosovo, the Netherlands raised questions about the rule of law. 

In 2018 when the European Commission proposed visa liberalization, the Netherlands and several other EU member states were not convinced that Kosovo had made sufficient progress in the fight against high-level corruption and organized crime. Progress in this direction was one of the two remaining criteria – the other being demarcation. While the Commission assessed that Kosovo had made "sustainable progress", the Dutch policy makers were concerned about the cases that were being dismissed in the pre-trial phase, the low number of final sentences, the general institutional capacity of the rule of law in Kosovo, as well as the lack of political will. for advancing the fight against high-level corruption and organized crime. As such, the Dutch stance on visa liberalization was in line with the traditional principle of Dutch policy towards enlargement: "strict, but fair". The Netherlands was strict with the liberalization of visas, since Kosovo was not fair with the implementation of reforms in the rule of law. 
So, since the first days after the positive recommendation of the European Commission, the Netherlands, together with several other countries such as Germany, France, etc., have expressed skepticism about Kosovo's progress in the field of the rule of law. Thus, apart from an exception during the Austrian presidency of the EU, the issue of visa liberalization has never been placed on the agenda of the EU's decision-making mechanisms. 

However, recently the attitude of the skeptical EU countries is changing. Chancellor Scholz has assessed that Kosovo has met the visa liberalization criteria, while the ambassador of France in Kosovo, Mrs. Marie-Christine Butel, has recognized that "the issue of visa liberalization has clearly returned to the European discussion table, under more favorable conditions than ever before". In this spirit, the Dutch attitude is also changing. Dutch policymakers estimate that today's majority in Kosovo promises the much-needed political stability that offers an opportunity to implement reforms and fight corruption. Against this background, shortly before the summit of the last European Council in June 2022, the Dutch parliament approved a motion by the deputy Mrs. Kati Piri (from the PvdA party) to reconsider the liberalization of visas for Kosovo in the short term based on a new opinion of the European Commission. Also, during the last summit of the European Council, the Dutch delegation secured the commitment from the European Commission to prepare an updated report on the fulfillment of the visa liberalization criteria from Kosovo. The report is expected to be published in October this year. In addition, during the summit, Prime Minister Mark Rutte told the media: "[…] maybe also for the liberalization of visas for Kosovo, we can hope that later this year or next year we can take the next step, because they have done a lot of work towards strengthening the rule of law and establishing an independent judiciary". Rutte's statement at the summit, where he refers to the granting of visa liberalization as the "next step", was significant because it was the first time that a Dutch official indicated a possible change of position on Kosovo's visa liberalization process. These developments herald a more open and positive positioning of the Netherlands against visa liberalization. 
However, despite the positive change in the attitude of skeptical countries, they are still closely watching the implementation of reforms in Kosovo. In particular, the Netherlands wants to see "irreversible implementation" of reforms in the area of ​​the rule of law. Also, the Netherlands will observe with great attention and rigor the eventual increase in the rate of migration of citizens from Kosovo as a result of visa liberalization.   

Looking back in time, I think we can draw three lessons from the positioning of the Netherlands in the context of visa liberalization. First, the Netherlands is an extremely strict country. Their strict and direct attitudes are not exclusively related to the enlargement process. For example, in the context of the last negotiations for the EU budget, the Netherlands was ready to collapse the entire negotiation process due to their strict insistence on the most effective use of the budget. In this sense, we have to get used to the fact that the Netherlands will always ask for more than most other EU countries. Second, the rule of law is the credo of Dutch foreign policy. And again not only in the process of expansion. The tough Dutch stance on the rule of law has brought the Dutch government often into conflict with EU members themselves, such as Hungary and Poland. In this sense, we have to get used to the fact that the Netherlands will be the guardian of the rule of law within the EU Council even in the framework of our future membership process. From receiving the status of a candidate country to membership, the Netherlands will always be there to ask for more in the field of the rule of law. Third, we need to start getting used to the fact that the heads of the EU are its member countries, and not the European Commission or the European Parliament. A thousand times the Commission and the European Parliament have repeated that Kosovo has met the visa liberalization criteria, but nothing happened. Nothing happened, because it is the member states who decide. Therefore, in the future our ears should be much more open to what the member countries are talking about, and less to what the Commission and the European Parliament are saying.