House of Representatives news

On Thursday 28 May 2020 the temporary committee on the Digital future of the Dutch House of Representatives has presented its final report 'Update required. Towards greater parliamentary control of digitisation'. The committee has concluded that the House should establish a standing parliamentary committee for Digital Affairs, starting in the next Cabinet term. Further more, it recommends amongst other things that the House should draw up a Digitisation agenda and place additional focus on European Union legislation and how it is shaped.

On May 4 2020, the commemoration ceremony at the Roll of Honour for the Fallen took place in the House of Representatives. The President of the House, Khadija Arib, gave a speech and laid a wreath at the national monument, together with President of the Senate Jan Anthonie Bruijn, on behalf of the States General. Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Paul Blokhuis, State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport, laid a wreath on behalf of the Council of Ministers.

The Former Plenary Hall has been temporarily reinstated as a meeting room. At this spot, which was the home of the plenary meetings of the House of Representatives until 1992, a round table discussion about the Corona app took place on Wednesday 22 April.

The Dutch House of Representatives will increase the number of physical debates in the coming weeks. The House will continue to scrutinise the work of Government with due regard for the health and safety of everyone working in the House. President of the House Khadija Arib writes this in a letter to Members of Parliament, on behalf of the Presidium. During the coming recess, the House will continue to hold debates on the coronavirus.

On Sunday March 15, the President of the House of Representatives, ms Khadija Arib, announced new steps in parliament to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. The parliamentary process will continue, but the number of physical debates will be reduced. Only debates that are of the utmost importance will continue to be held in the plenary hall; this goes for all debates concerning the coronavirus. The only plenary session during week 12 will be on Wednesday 18 March, when there will be a debate on the current government strategy to fight the coronavirus.

On Monday February 10 2020, the parliamentary committee of inquiry into the undesirable influence of unfree countries will start its hearings.

At the Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen on January 30 2020, Khadija Arib, President of the House of Representatives, joined other members of the judging panel to view numerous photographs of the Netherlands during wartime. The photographs are part of the exhibition entitled World War II in a hundred photographs (De Tweede Wereldoorlog in honderd foto's) that will be on display in the House of Representatives from 30 March onwards. The photographs, 25 for each Dutch province, originate from professional photographers and private collections.

In 2019, the Dutch House of Representatives featured at the very heart of public debate. According to President of the House of Representatives, ms. Khadija Arib, in her traditional pre-Christmas address, this was made even clearer by the numerous civil protests that were held. She cited the debate about the childcare allowance as one of those that had the greatest impact in the last year.

The Presidium of the House of Representatives has appointed Jacqueline Biesheuvel-Vermeijden as the independent integrity adviser for MPs. They can approach her for advice on the interpretation and application of the rules governing integrity.

On Thursday 10 October 2019, the Transparency Rapporteurs from the Dutch House of Representatives, Pieter Omtzigt (CDA) and Renske Leijten (SP), paid a working visit to the European Commission for Democracy through Law (also known as the Venice Commission) of the Council of Europe.

At the request of the Presidium, a working group consisting of MPs Mr Joost Sneller (D66, chair), Mr Jeroen van Wijngaarden (VVD) and Ms Anne Kuik (CDA) has scrutinized the continuation of the people's representation in case of an extreme emergency. The working group has examined which legal and statutory provisions are in place in case of an emergency, to make sure that the House can carry on with its business, thus guaranteeing the democratic legitimation of the national government. The working group recently published its findings.

At the proposal of Ms Agnes Mulder (CDA) and Mr Matthijs Sienot (D66), the Inter-parliamentary Conference on Climate Change in Helsinki was concluded with an appeal for the European Commission and the European Council to set the long-term goal that the EU should be climate-neutral by 2050. The European Commission and the European Council were also called upon to increase the current EU's 2030 reduction targets.

Dozens of programmers and data analysts 'took over' the Central Passageway of the House of Representatives on Friday, 4 October 2019. During this third edition of the Accountability Hack, they came up with open data solutions to assist members of the House in addressing issues pertaining to education funding and medicine prices.

The year in which the Netherlands celebrated 100 years of universal suffrage for men and women was concluded in a festive way in the House of Representatives. To mark the occasion, an investigation report into the lives of Suze Groeneweg and Carry Pothuis-Smit, the first two women ever to become members of parliament in the Netherlands, was presented to the President of the House, Ms Khadija Arib, and the President of the Senate, Mr Jan Anthonie Bruijn.

The Battle of Arnhem was commemorated on Friday evening, 20 September 2019, at the Airborne Monument in Arnhem. The President of the House of Representatives, Ms Khadija Arib, laid a wreath on behalf of the States General.