Page 15 - Aanbevelingen om de integriteit

Transparency of the law-making process

63. In the Netherlands the draft laws at government level are subject to public consultation on a
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dedicated website . This is cabinet policy since 2011. In practice, the minimum period for
consultation is four weeks. Everyone can provide comments, and may have their comments made
public. Generally, draft laws and related explanatory notes are published for consultation, together
with a summary of answers on the 7 questions of the Dutch comprehensive impact assessment
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system IAK and sometimes with other background information documents (i.e. information about
implementation aspects etc.). When the consultation period is finished, all comments (published on
the website or not) are taken into account to improve the quality of the draft and the explanatory
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note. A short summary of comments and their follow-up are published online . This is done after the
Council of Ministers has decided on the draft and the draft is sent to the Council of State for advice.
The final draft is then sent to Parliament, where it is made public.

64. In addition, consultations may be organised with representatives of parties that are affected
by the draft or that have a role in the development of the draft. Sometimes social media (e.g.
LinkedIn or Twitter) are used for consultation. Policy-documents are increasingly published online.

65. Information about drafts that are being prepared by the central government is published on
a dedicated website. When Parliament decides on drafts, the final versions of the texts are published.
The Prime Ministerial Directives on Drafting Legislation - Directive 4.44 concerns reporting about
contacts with third parties in the process of law-making. The explanatory note on a draft law should
include, if possible and relevant, information on third parties which have given relevant input to a
draft, the way in which input was provided, the content of the input and what impact it has had.

Third parties and lobbyists

66. Lobbying is part of the political decision-making process in the Netherlands, which has been
described as continuously striving for consensus and the creation of broad-based support (the polder
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model) . It is seen as an important way to exchange all sorts of information, to influence the
decision-making process and to increase public support for decisions. Lobbying is an active and
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growing sector in the Netherlands . There are even institutionalised relationships and partnerships,
between government and the private and non-profit sectors.

67. Lobbying as such is not much regulated in the Netherlands. However, a voluntary and public
register (pass for parliamentary entry) of the House of Representatives was put in place for lobbyists
in 2012. Moreover, a voluntary code of conduct for the largest association of lobbyists was
introduced in 2001.

68. The only rule affecting PTEFs in respect of lobbying is a ban on former cabinet members to
lobby in their former ministry (Handbook for Ministers and State Secretaries). However, this rule
does not apply to a minister lobbying other ministries of a government and it has some more
limitations. For more details see the Chapter “Post-employment restrictions” below.

69. The GET learned that in the last few years lobbying has been more closely monitored by the
media and has become a political issue. Within several sectors there is increasing pressure for more
transparency regarding lobbying activities in the Netherlands. During its on-site visit, the GET noticed

20 See www.internetconsultatie.nl
21 See www.naarhetiak.nl
22 See www.internetconsultatie.nl
23 National Integrity Systems (NIS) Study for the Netherlands, Transparency International – see
https://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/nisarticle/netherlands_2012
24 There are an estimated 2000 interest organisations of all kinds and sizes making their way to the centres of government
and parliament in The Hague, where the interest traffic flow takes place.

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