Netherlands

Overview and recent developments

The Netherlands has a long-standing tradition of regulatory reform, with a strong emphasis on the reduction of burdens for business and citizens. This focus has largely remained in the centre of recent Better Regulation initiatives.

The Integraal Afwegingskader (IAK) combines existing requirements and instructions for ex ante impact assessment. While the core focus remains on measuring the costs of a regulation, the IAK has been gradually updated since 2015 by introducing assessments of the impact on innovation, SME’s, gender equality and developing countries. Periodic ex post evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of regulations, mandatory for all primary laws since 2001, now includes an evaluation of regulatory burden and is complemented by reviews of administrative burden and compliance costs in specific sectors.

In recent years, the Netherlands placed a strong focus on accessibility and transparency of the regulatory process. For this purpose, a digital calendar has been launched, allowing the public to track the legislative process. Public consultation through the central interactive website has been further promoted and is more frequently used to consult on draft proposals as well as on policy documents informing about the nature of the problem and possible solutions. SME’s can provide suggestions in the early stages of the development of a regulation as part of the recently introduced SME-Test.

Informing the public systematically in advance that a consultation is planned to take place could help to receive more input for public consultations. The Dutch RIA framework could be also further strengthened by extending the focus on regulatory burden towards a more systematic assessment of benefits and distributional effects of a regulation.

Institutional setup for regulatory oversight

Within the government, the Unit for Judicial Affairs and Better Regulation Policy in the Ministry of Justice and Security is responsible for scrutinizing the overall compliance with the RIA framework. The Unit for Regulatory Reform and ICT-policy in the Ministry of Economic Affairs co-ordinates the program for regulatory burden reduction and provides oversight on the quality of regulatory burden assessments. The Adviescollege Toetsing Regeldruk (ATR), located at arm’s length from the government, advices ministries on the quality of the individual burden assessments at the early stage of the development of a proposal and can recommend improving the assessment if it is deemed inadequate. After approval of the Cabinet, the Council of State issues a formal opinion on the overall legal quality of a legislative proposal.

Requirements to use regulatory management tools for EU-made laws: Netherlands
Stakeholder engagement		Regulatory impact assessment
Development stage
The government facilitates the engagement of domestic stakeholders in the European Commission’s consultation process	No
Negotiation stage
Stakeholder engagement is required to define the negotiating position for EU directives/regulations	No	RIA is required to define the negotiating position for EU directives/regulations	No
Consultation is required to be open to the general public	No
Transposition stage
Stakeholder engagement is required when transposing EU directives	No	RIA is required when transposing EU directives	Yes
The same requirements and processes apply as for domestically made laws	No	The same requirements and processes for RIA apply as for domestically made laws	Yes
Consultation is required to be open to the general public	No	RIA includes a specific assessment of provisions added at the national level beyond those in the EU directives	Yes
		RIA distinguishes between impacts stemming from EU requirements and additional national implementation measures	No
Source: Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance Survey 2017, http://oe.cd/ireg.

End of the section – Back to iLibrary publication page