Implementation process of EU policy in the Netherlands

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**General information about the policy process**

The EU laws first need to be transposed on the national level, of which the first explanation is usually legal in nature. Accordingly, in the Netherlands, there are different legal measures which include: the statutes, orders in council, ministerial orders (which are the major/main ones), and the rest. For example, in transposing and implementing the EU tobacco directive and law 1999, five (5) legal instruments were used (Steunenberg, 2004), including the amendment of the tobacco law and four sub-level legal instruments including an order in the council, two separate ministerial decrees and another order in council.

"The total impact of European directives on the total amount of national
legislation are through 3 used legal instruments.
The three most often used legal instruments: formal laws, orders in
council and ministerial decisions.
Formal laws, or acts of parliaments are issued and passed by members of parliament or by parliament in co-production with the council of ministers. The latter two legal instruments are instruments of delegated or secondary laws. Orders in council are issued by the council of ministers and do not involve the parliament. Orders in council, however, need to pass the scrutiny procedure at the Dutch Council of State and can be recalled by the parliament after. Ministerial decisions are
tertiary rules, as individual ministers can issue them without having to pass formal prior
rounds of consultation or scrutiny.
12.6% of all parliamentary acts, 19.7% of all orders in council, and
10.1% of all valid ministerial decisions were actually rules transposing European
directives. The total overall impact for all three types of legislation was 12.6%.

The Departments generally employ the same type of rules in similar proportions both when transposing EC directives and when producing national rules. Departmental autonomy is a defining feature of Dutch central government in general, and this pattern persists in the coordination and implementation of ECd directives.Nearly 90% of the European directives in the Netherlands are transposed through delegated legislation in which no involvement of parliament is required." ."(Bovens M. & Yesilkagit, K.)

(Bovens M. & Yesilkagit, K. (2004)The EU as Lawmaker: The Impact of EC-directives on National Regulation in The Netherlands. PhD Thesis, Utrecht University School of Governance , The NEtherlands)

 **The main actors and the relationship between actors**

"Proposals for directives enter the Dutch government through the Working Group to
Assess New Commission Proposals (BNC).
The permanent representation in Brussels directs any new initiative of the Commission to this working group. The BNG is chaired by the Foreign Affairs department and consists of representatives of all departments.

The working group assesses whether proposals meet the requirements of
the principle of subsidiarity and determines the department that should assume first
responsibility in further handling the formulation of the national position within that
dossier. In practice, therefore, it is the first-responsible department that formulates the instruction.

In the final stage, it is the cabinet that makes the ultimate decision on the Dutch
position. This concerns specifically those issues that have not yet been settled within
COREPER. On these more intricate issues decision-making within the cabinet is first
prepared by the so-called “Co-Co”: the Coordination Committee for European Integration
and Association Issues, a commission that convenes under the chairmanship of the junior
minister of Foreign Affairs.
Lead departments are made responsible for the implementation of ‘their’ directives and are obliged to monthly report to the cabinet on
their progress. Whenever problems arise, legislative experts from the Ministry of Justice
are called in to handle and resolve potential bottlenecks. The Foreign Affairs ministry retains the overall coordination and is responsible to report on the implementation of directives to the Commission.
THe government established an Interdepartmental Committee for European
Law (ICER) to develop a framework for the implementation of EC-directives. ICER is responsible for interdepartmental coordination of the preparation and implementation of European law in the Netherlands and for the more efficient and effective deployment of European law expertise by the departments in the preparation and implementation of European law. The ICER is jointly chaired by the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Security and Justice. The secretariat is jointly run by these departments."(Bovens M. & Yesilkagit, K.)
(Bovens M. & Yesilkagit, K. (2004)The EU as Lawmaker: The Impact of EC-directives on National Regulation in The Netherlands. PhD Thesis, Utrecht University School of Governance , The NEtherlands)