House of Representatives news

A working group of the Public Expenditure Committee has recently published a report on the national right to approve and amend budgetary policy from a European perspective. An executive summary and the conclusions of the report are now available in English.

While in The Hague the House of Representatives held its annual general political debate on Wednesday 17 September, MP Ard van der Steur (VVD) was in Paris, in the French National Assembly, where he informed a number of European colleagues of the objections the House of Representatives has to the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor's Office.

Ms Stientje van Veldhoven, member of the House of Representatives, will attend the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, on 23 September, as rapporteur on behalf of the standing committee on Infrastructure and the Environment. At the Climate Summit, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will urge the Member States to do more about climate change. He will also promote the UN climate negotiations.

On Monday 11 August from 14.00 to ca 16.00 hrs the standing committee on Foreign Affairs, the standing committee on Security and Justice and the standing committee on Defence were given a technical briefing on the repatriation mission.

On 29 July 2014 the standing committee on Foreign Affairs, the standing committee on Defence and the standing committee on Security and Justice engaged in a debate with Mr Frans Timmermans, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, Minister of Defence, and Mr Ivo Opstelten, Minister of Security and Justice, about the current situation surrounding the Flight MH17 disaster.Read the English summary of the report of the debate in the attached document.

On Monday 28 July 2014, a briefing at civil service level took place in which the standing committee on Foreign Affairs, the standing committee on Security and Justice and the standing committee on Defence were informed by Mr Dick Schoof, National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV), General Tom Middendorp, Chief of the Netherlands Defence Staff (CdS), Mr Gerard Bouman, Chief Constable of the National Police Force, and Ms Marisa Gerards, deputy secretary-general for Political Affairs (DGPZ) of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, about the state of affairs concerning the Flight MH17 disaster.

On Monday 28 July 2014 the standing committee on Foreign Affairs, the standing committee on Security and Justice and the standing committee on Defence held a procedural meeting about the repatriation mission. The outcome? A briefing at civil service level to be held on Monday afternoon and a committee debate with the Cabinet on Tuesday 29 July.

On Friday 25 July, the standing committee on Foreign Affairs, was informed about the current situation with regard to the MH17 disaster.

On Friday 25 July the standing committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives will hold a debate about the flight MH17 disaster, from 10.00 hrs until ca 12.00 hrs.

A summary report in English of the briefing given by the Dutch Cabinet to the House of Representatives on the MH17 disaster is now available online.  

This week, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the leaders of political parties in the House of Representatives paid a working visit to the Royal Netherlands Navy frigate HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën off the coast of Tanzania.

The Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into Housing Associations is carrying out an inquiry into the structure and the functioning of the housing association sector.

Come to the House of Representatives on Architecture Day, Saturday 21 June 2014, and visit the new part of the building complex. It was built in 1992 and links together several older buildings.

On Tuesday may 20th the House of Representatives adopted the report 'Ahead in Europe – on the role of the Tweede Kamer and national parliaments in the European Union'.

Monday 7 April, the Speaker of the Netherlands’ House of Representatives, Anouchka van Miltenburg, addressed her European colleagues at the Conference of Speakers of European Union Parliaments, in Vilnius. In her keynote speech she asked for augmentation of the EU legislative process that would allow National Parliaments to be of greater influence.