Pieter Omtzigt


Pieter Herman Omtzigt is a Dutch politician. As a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal he has been an MP since 3 June 2003 apart from a short interruption from 17 June 2010 to 26 October 2010. He focuses on matters of taxes, pensions and additions.

Political career

In parliament, Omtzigt currently serves on the Committees on European Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Housing and Kingdom Services, Social Affairs and Employment, Finance and Public Expenditure. Since 2017, he has served as the parliament's rapporteur on Brexit.
In addition to his role in parliament, Omtzigt has served as member of the Dutch delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2004. He is currently a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights; the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe ; the Sub-Committee on Human Rights; the Sub-Committee on the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights; and the Sub-Committee on the Rights of Minorities.
In his capacity at the Parliamentary Assembly, Omtzigt has served as the Assembly's rapporteur on mass surveillance since 2014. Between 2016 and 2017, he prepared the Assembly's proposal on an Investment Court System for arbitrating in commercial disputes between states and foreign investors.
In 2017, media in Netherlands described how fake news reports of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crash were propagated with the support of Omtzigt who introduced a Russian man as an "eyewitness" of the crash on a public expert debate in May 2017. The man, who was an asylum-seeker from Ukraine, never witnessed the crash, and his speech, texted to him by Omtzigt prior to the interview, repeated one of the Russia-promoted versions of Mig jets downing the Boeing. Shortly after journalists determined that R. had not been at home on the night of the crash and he had already been interviewed by officials who had discounted him as a witness.
He has also served as rapporteur on the case of the car bombing of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, justice for the victims of ISIL ; and on Poland.