Hoekstra tries for EU job, but his ministry was slow on Russia sanctions

Aspiring European Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs dragged its feet in joining European consultations on sanctions against Russia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was absent from four meetings to discuss the sanctions, only entering the talks weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, NRC reports based on emails obtained through the Open Government Act.

Hoekstra has an interview with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday afternoon to convince her that he is the right person to succeed Frans Timmermans. Hoekstra’s nomination by the Cabinet last week sparked controversy in local and European politics. There are doubts about his suitability to represent the European Union on climate policy during this time of crucial climate negotiations.

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February 2022, the European Commission set up the Freeze and Seize Taskforce to ensure that European sanctions against Russia were implemented efficiently. The Belgian European Commissioner Didier Reynders chaired the discussions. The idea was that each member state would send a senior official to the task force’s meetings.

But while Hoekstra publicly emphasized that he himself was responsible for international coordination, his Ministry refused to participate in those consultations. During the first four meetings, only an official from the Ministry of Justice and Security, with expertise in organized crime, represented the Netherlands.

The officials at Justice and Security were annoyed by the situation, according to emails in NRC’s possession. “BZ [Foreign Affairs] is the first signatory and is, therefore, the lead party for all sanctions and sanctions legislation,” a Justice official emailed their colleagues on March 14. They said Justice employees ended up in “an area where we have no role, know too little about, and are not equipped for.”

The Ministry of Finance also failed to attend the sanctions consultations in the first few weeks, according to the emails. “It seems to be a kind of hot potato passed on to another player as quickly as possible,” a Justice official wrote on March 14, calling it a bad look for the Netherlands. “Shared responsibility is, in practice, no responsibility.”

On March 18, a Justice employee wrote that they were still pressing Foreign Affairs for representation. “That is not really going smoothly.” That same day, a Foreign Affairs employee told a Justice colleague that the sanctions were “not directly related to our responsibilities. It is more in the area of Finance and Customs. So, unfortunately, we can’t do anything for you at the moment.”

On April 1, a Justice employee wrote: “It has now been four weeks, and so far [Justice and Security] has been on its own in the EU Task Force. That cannot be the intention.” Three days later, the government appointed Stef Blok (VVD) to coordinate the sanctions against Russia. A few days later, Blok himself joined the Task Force consultations.

On March 31, Hoekstra faced critical parliamentarians in a debate on the sanctions against Russia. He told the MPs that there was “a lot of coordination between the Ministries involved regarding the sanctions” and that Foreign Affairs “continuously played a role in this.” The international agreements on sanctions against Russia were “first and foremost a responsibility for myself,” he said.

In a response to the article, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told NRC that these were “internally intended emails from individual officials, without context, which we do not want to comment on publicly.” The Ministry said it could not quickly reconstruct exactly what happened to provide NRC with an explanation.