The Dutch Minister for Infrastructure and Water Management has announced in a written statement to parliament, that the Dutch government will no longer grant exemptions to the EU’s prohibition on Russian-flagged vessels, or vessels registered with the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping from using Dutch ports.
The Dutch had been granting permission for Russian fishing vessels to use Dutch ports based on the “food products” exemption. This practice will now stop with the Minister stating: “Future requests for an exemption for Russian flagged ships will also be assessed negatively”.
Press reports in the Netherland had linked Russian fishing vessels to espionage, but the main reasons given in the statement include:
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- “increasing geopolitical tensions”;
- “upcoming tightening of European sanctions policy”; and
- that the issue “had also been discussed in the debates about the European summit by a number of factions and attention was drawn to effective implementation of the sanctions by the Netherlands”.
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