09/11/20

NETHERLANDS: Dutch expats campaign for dual nationality rights.

As published on internationalinvestment.net, Friday 6 November, 2020.

Dutch expat organisation SNBN is seeking to bring its campaign to win dual nationality rights for Dutch nationals who live abroad a part of the general election campaign.

Under Dutch law, all citizens who take another nationality will automatically lose their right to a Dutch passport. There are a few exceptions, such as being married to a Dutch national for a number of years.

SNBN chairman Eelco Keij told BNR radio on Friday. "It could be that you need another nationality for a job or to buy a house,' Keij said. ‘Then you automatically, without warning, lose your right to Dutch nationality without appeal."

The SNBN is launching its campaign on Saturday with a full page advert in the NRC and hopes put the issue on the agenda in the 2021 general election campaign, according to local media. Around one million Dutch nationals are thought to live abroad.

The current government had pledged in its 2017 coalition agreement to take steps to change the Dutch rules on dual nationality but has not published any recommendations, despite planning to do so in spring 2019.

A large majority of MPs will vote in favour of new legislation giving Dutch nationals in the UK the right to dual nationality if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal.

Recently, The highest Dutch administrative court has ruled that Dutch nationality law, which says Dutch dual nationals will lose their Dutch passports if they have lived outside the European Union for at least 10 years, could be in conflict with European law.

The Council of State, which is following a decision handed down by the European Court of Justice last year, says that the automatic loss of Dutch nationality needs to be assessed on a case by case basis.