Eric van der Burg

Senate

In June 2019, Van der Burg was elected into the Senate of the States General of the Netherlands. While a member of the Senate, Van der Burg has served on several different committees. From December 2020 to February 2021, van der Berg served as the vice-chairman of the temporary Research Proposal Committee for a parliamentary inquiry into discrimination in the Netherlands. The committee's proposal for an inquiry was accepted, and Van der Burg subsequently served as vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Discrimination in the Netherlands.^[2][5]

State Secretary for Justice and Security

On 10 January 2022, Van der Burg joined the fourth Rutte cabinet as State Secretary for Justice and Security. While on foreign business, he is allowed to use the title "Minister for Migration".

During Van der Burg’s time in office, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović warned the Netherlands in 2022 that it is failing to uphold the most basic rights for asylum seekers arriving in the country.^[6] When the Christian Union opposed his party’s proposal to create a two-tier system for asylum seekers, with people under threat of persecution granted more rights than those fleeing war zones, and to cap the number of family members who could join refugees in the second category at 200 per year, Van der Burg reportedly proposed a compromise by making the family reunification rule an “emergency brake” which would only be triggered if the country’s migration facilities were at risk of becoming overcrowded.^[7] Shortly after, the coalition government was dissolved.^[7]

While the cabinet was demissionary, both houses of parliament passed Van der Burg's Dispersal Act. The law was intended to more fairly distribute asylum seekers across Dutch municipalities. Van der Burg's term ended on 2 July 2024, when the Schoof cabinet was sworn in.^[8] He was succeeded by Marjolein Faber as Minister of Asylum and Migration, with her own department.^[9]

House of Representatives

He was elected to the House of Representatives in the November 2023 general election that had resulted from the coalition's collapse. The VVD entered a new coalition with the Party for Freedom (PVV), New Social Contract (NSC), and the Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB). Van der Burg supported the coalition agreement even though it included the reversal of the Dispersal Act.^[10] In an interview, he told that he would not join the new cabinet because of his opposition to the cooperation.^[11] In the House, Van der Burg served as the VVD's spokesperson on foreign affairs and Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.^[12] During the Gaza war, he said that the Netherlands should unconditionally support Israel, including through the supply of weapons, while he emphasized that its government must adhere to the law of war. Van der Burg condemned pro-Palestinian protests on Dutch university campuses, saying that they included antisemitic acts and that ethnic violence in other conflicts such as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War sparked less outrage.^[13]