The Netherlands

General information about the policy process
As a member of the European Union (EU), the Netherlands takes part in EU legislation. The Netherlands opts for a constructive-critical attitude in the EU.

The Netherlands believes that the EU should confine itself to the most important policy areas. These are centered around prosperity, freedom and security. Moreover, if Member States can make better policy on the national or regional level, then the EU must not decide on those matters (part of the subsidiary principle).

According to the Netherlands, the following matters mainly belong to the national policy area: pensions, taxes, culture, education and care.

The Dutch government also believes that the EU must reduce the number of rules and complicated working arrangements.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs coordinates the different Dutch departments on the EU integration issues, EU policy etc. In a so called "Haags Overleg" (The Hague meeting) several Commissions are participating among which: The procedure for implementation is briefly described on this page
 * Proposals from the European Commission in the BNC
 * Coordination Committee informing the ministers to form a single point of view vis a vis the Council
 * EU Law and Judiciary in ICER (Interdepartementale Commissie Europees Recht). This commission has three sub-commissions: ICER-H with regard to the European Court of Justice, ICER-N with regard to notifications, ICER-I with regard to the Implementation EU law.
 * Practically every department is represented by the 'Permanente Vertegenwoordiging van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden bij de Europese Unie' in Coreper I, Coreper II and the Political Safety Committee

The Policy Process in The Netherlands has two approaches:


 * 1--From the EU: Directives and Regulations are transposed into National Legislation. This is coordinated by the Dutch Parliamentary Commission for EU affairs and implemented by the applicable ministries.
 * 2--From the Netherlands itself. Parliament annually decides on a list of EU priorities for coming year. This gets communicated to other parties at local level, EU countries and the EU. Priorities for 2019-2024 are migration, security, a strong and sustainable economy that offers protection, climate policy and protecting values and interests abroad. Link.This facilitates coordination, decision making, EU lawmaking and National Transposition and implementation at a later stage.

Levels of government in the Netherlands

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. The state of the Netherlands is a decentralised, unitary state composed of municipalities (gemeenten) and provinces (provincies), and water boards (waterschappen).

Since the country is formed by regions, those have the possibility of access to the EU Council through different ways, including indirectly via the Committee of the Regions. According to the Index on regional authority in the EU, the Netherlands belong to the top 10 member states of highest regional authority, indicating that the Dutch regions have a relatively large influence in EU legislative proposals.

Elaborate information on the different Dutch National Actors and their involvement with EU legislation and implementation can be found on the Division of Power-pages on the website of the European Committee of the Regions.

Main National Actors:

 * The Cabinet, consisting of secretaries of states and the Ministers and led by the prime minister. Executive power is entrusted to the government, consisting of the king (head of state) and all ministers and secretaries of state. The government has both administrative and legislative tasks.
 * According to the constitution, the parliament - which is consists of two chambers - controls the government and is co-legislator. Each minister has their own policy area and manages their ministry on a day-to-day basis and drafts new laws to present to parliament. Ministers may be assisted by one or more secretaries of state. After general elections, the process of cabinet formation starts. Parliament appoints a politician (the 'formateur'), usually the leader of the largest political party, to lead the formation of a coalition government.
 * The role of the king and the wider royal family is defined and limited by the constitution of the Netherlands. It states that the oldest child of the current ruler shall be successor to the throne, regardless of gender. As head of state, the monarch has almost no political power.


 * The king is part of the government and signs laws and royal decrees, although the ministers and secretaries of state are politically responsible for them. The king is inviolable and cannot be asked to resign. He could theoretically refuse to sign a law, but this would cause a constitutional crisis. He is officially the chair of the Council of State, which advises the government and parliament on legislation and governance and monitors the coherence and continuity of the government and the quality of public administration.

REGIONAL/ LOCAL ACTORS directly or indirectly involved: Provinces   and Samenwerking
 * Tweede Kamer (Senate 2): The lower and most powerful house has 150 members. The lower house is entitled to dismiss a minister when the response is not satisfactory and is tasked with introducing, amending and voting on bills. The Eerste Kamer approves or queries the bills. The lower house is directly elected by Dutch voters every four years, or earlier if the government resigns prior to the end of the mandate. The Cabinet and Tweede Kamer propose, legislate and implement legislation.
 * The Netherlands has a multi-party system and the lower house consists of representatives of around fifteen parties. Political parties present a ranked list of candidates on election day. Voters may cast a single vote for a candidate on one of the party lists. All party votes are added up, and seats are propor- tionally divided among the parties according to the vote totals. The seats are allocated to the members highest on the party lists or to members not in the top of the party list, but that have received a high number of votes (voorkeurszetels).
 * Eerste Kamer (Senate 1): The upper house has 75 members, and mainly focuses on the quality of legislation and can only pass or reject a bill, or delay it until the lower house passes an acceptable amendment. The EU monitors progress of the implementation of Laws and its subsequent execution and adherence. The upper house is indirectly elected every four years; the roughly 570 members of the provincial councils vote for members of the upper house. This is mostly a formal process, as there is no election campaign and voting is generally along party lines.
 * Reference : https://www.publieksdiensten.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/DENMARK-4-Local-Government-in-the-Netherlands.pdf
 * The Provinces:The Netherlands has 12 Provinces who through the Association of Provinces ( Interprovinciaal Overleg--IPO--) have their headquarters in the Hague. It has 12 representatives.
 * ---Huis van de Nederlandse Provincies ( HNP ) : this is the name of the IPO ( Provinces) office in Brussels. At Brussels the 12 Provinces are categorised into four Regions. North, South and East Netherlands and the Randstad Region.
 * This office coordinates and advises on EU matters.
 * Six Representatives from the IPO serve on the Council of the Municipalities and Regions
 * IMPLEMENTATION
 * Provinces: Each Province has Provinciale Staten--which is the Legislative Body and Gedeputeerde Staten which is the Executive body. The last one is responsible for implementation of National and EU laws which is most of the times delegated from the respective ministries. The Province can also makes it own law. Example, in the Province of Limburg all new roads must come with noise reducing asphalt.
 * Municipalities: The 380 mumicipalities ( gemeenten) are representated by a member body-Vereniging Nederlandse Gemeenten ( VNG ) [http:// https://vng.nl/files/vng/20170224-visiedocument-europa.pdf VNG Visie dovument]. The Vereniging includes Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius. The VNG, like all 390 gemeenten, presents annually a Vision document for the year ahead in which it specifies inter alia its relations with the EU.
 * Municipalities are responsible that all laws, including EU transpositions, at their level are implemented. They can make their own by-laws and collect certain taxes.
 * The Gemeente level is under stress because of a lack of capacity.The intricate detail and number of laws requires expertise which is lacking at smaller municipalities. Finance is another issue as these municipalities get most of their finance from the Government for implementation, which is sometimes not enough.
 * The number of Municipalities continues to decrease because of the mergers to improve capacity which not necessarily result in better management.


 * G4-EU Office: The 4 Big Municipalities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht have combined representation in Brussels i.r.o. EU affairs.


 * Bureau Brussels: Different parts of Dutch national government and its implementing organisations have an office in Brussels to lobby for their interests. Examples are Rijkswaterstaat (Department of Waterways and Public Works), the UvW and Vemin. The UvW is the National Water Board and is responsible for the water, dikes, rivers  and all water related matters in The Netherlands. Considering that 25% of the country is below sea level its importance in Dutch and EU legislation can not be underestimated. Vewin is the National organisation of water suppliers which subscribes to the EU standars.


 * Others:-


 * ---United Cities & Local Goverment ( UCLG), this is an international body.


 * ---Eurocities: big cities in Europe of which 6 are from the Netherlands namely Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Parkstad-Limburg.


 * --AER, Association of European Regions


 * --CEMR: Council of European Municipalities and Regions: as mentioned above it has 6 members from the Municipalities (VNG) and 6 from the Provinces ( IPO)
 * Policy networks and communities
 * Policy networks and communities
 * Policy networks and communities

Just like nation states, Dutch regions and municipalities cooperate internationally, for example through the international bodies listed above. An important aspect of fulfilling a region's ambitions, however is through policy networks. Not only does this help in cross-border learning and joint projects, oftentimes, European programmes take shape when entire regions or sectors are grouped together. Many regions are too small to find their way in Brussels own their own, but through the formation of international policy networks, they can become important partners for European programmes and subsidies. These networks can be territorial and sectoral, governmental and triple helix (government, business, higher education and research).

Dutch provinces are part of many different networks, for example the large Vanguard Initiative, EUREGIO, the Conference on Peripheral Maritime Regions, the Rhine Alpine Corridor, Vlaams - Nederlandse Delta, Districts of Creativity, POLIS Global Platform, and the Straits Committee. Many of these networks focus on cross-border infrastructure, innovation, higher education, international biodiversity and circular economy. Some of these networks are national, but with an international focus, such as the Economic Board Zuid - Holland and InnovationQuarter. In any case, by exploring these networks you can learn a lot about Dutch policy priorities. Geographically, the Dutch border provinces have a lot of cooperative networks with their Belgian and German neighbour regions. In fact, EUREGIO was the oldest regional policy community of its kind, founded in 1958.
 * Reference: https://www.zuid-holland.nl/onderwerpen/internationaal/pzh-netwerken/
 * Reference: https://www.s3vanguardinitiative.eu/
 * Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EUREGIO




 * Recipient (dienstontvanger); This can be industry, profession , individual, organisation etc.


 * The interdepartmental work group BNC (Beoordeling Nieuwe Commissievoorstellen)
 * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this coordinates EU policy.
 * Specific departments related to the topic of the to be implemented policy
 * Political parties
 * Private sector in an advisory role (Employers- and trade union umbrella organisations)
 * Interest groups
 * National parliament (especially now that changing the posted workers directive has become part of the national debate)
 * The "Staten Generaal" which consist of the Eerste and Tweede Kamer

International actors involved
and
 * Provider (dienstverrichter)
 * European Union
 * European Parlement
 * Council of the European Union
 * International social partners in a lobbying role (Trade unions and employers’ organisations)
 * United Nations; The EU holds observer status at the United Nations and is a full participant in most of the UN's bodies. Examples are the World Health Organization, Commision on Sustainable Development, Forum on Forests. Kyoto Protocol , Paris Agreement . All these actors have an direct or indirect influence on EU and National Policy.
 * Euregio's : The border provinces have arrangements with the neighbouring countries provinces at certain levels.

The relationship between actors
Soon after the text of an EU directive is made available the interdepartmental work group BNC (under the chair of the ministry of Foreign Affairs) names a responsible department. This department is responsible for the transposition of the directive to Dutch law. Besides the role of the central government, the Staten Generaal functions as a co-legislator in the implementation process and the "Raad van State" as an advisory organ.

The relationship between the Dutch actors in the shaping, implementing and monitoring of transposed EU policy can be described as progressive. Quite a number of parties are involved which can speed up policy making. Too many parties might also cloud decision making. The fact that Gemeentes/ Municipalities are more involved in laws in which they do not have little input in the decision making gives the ordinary citizen the impression that their elected local leaders and their Government is far away--bureaucracy. The contra argument that a lot of good actually originates from EU law making ( Health, Environment, Human Rights, Schengen Visa ) is not fully understood. The imbalance between these two gives reason for the rise in EURO Sceptical ( Brexit ) and Pro EURO ( France ) movements.