A majority of the House of Representatives has approved a mandatory lobby register today for government officials and senior officials. Only VVD and Groep van Haga voted against.
This means that from now on ministers and state secretaries, as well as senior officials, must keep a record of all their meetings and conversations with lobbyists and register them in a lobby register. They must also state what has been discussed. “The aim of this is to make political decision-making more transparent,” says Volt party leader Laurens Dassen. “So we can increase democratic control.”
The reason for Volt’s proposal is the 2019 report of anti-corruption body GRECO. There, the institute established that there are no good rules in the Netherlands for the transition from politics to the private sector. In July this year, GRECO noted that little has been done with their recommendations from 2019.
In September, the first step was taken to implement these recommendations. Then the House passed two motions, both submitted by Volt. The relevant motions ensure that a cooling-off period of two years will apply to ministers who transfer to the business world, and that a review committee will be set up that will assess a transfer from ministers to interest groups.
In recent months there has been a lot of talk about lobbying practices of former ministers. For example, there was a wave of criticism after Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, switched to the Energy Netherlands sector association at the end of August. In July, Stientje van Veldhoven, State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management, transferred to the World Resources Institute. While initially no lobbying ban seemed to apply to them for two years, Rutte wrote to the House in September that both former ministers are not allowed to have contact with employees of their former ministry for a period of two years.
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A majority of the House of Representatives has approved a mandatory lobby register today for government officials and senior officials. Only VVD and Groep van Haga voted against.
This means that from now on ministers and state secretaries, as well as senior officials, must keep a record of all their meetings and conversations with lobbyists and register them in a lobby register. They must also state what has been discussed. “The aim of this is to make political decision-making more transparent,” says Volt party leader Laurens Dassen. “So we can increase democratic control.”
The reason for Volt’s proposal is the 2019 report of anti-corruption body GRECO. There, the institute established that there are no good rules in the Netherlands for the transition from politics to the private sector. In July this year, GRECO noted that little has been done with their recommendations from 2019.
In September, the first step was taken to implement these recommendations. Then the House passed two motions, both submitted by Volt. The relevant motions ensure that a cooling-off period of two years will apply to ministers who transfer to the business world, and that a review committee will be set up that will assess a transfer from ministers to interest groups.
In recent months there has been a lot of talk about lobbying practices of former ministers. For example, there was a wave of criticism after Cora van Nieuwenhuizen, the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, switched to the Energy Netherlands sector association at the end of August. In July, Stientje van Veldhoven, State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management, transferred to the World Resources Institute. While initially no lobbying ban seemed to apply to them for two years, Rutte wrote to the House in September that both former ministers are not allowed to have contact with employees of their former ministry for a period of two years.
Volt, so hot right now. Volt.