House of Representatives news

On 7 January 2016, the Dutch parliament will meet the European Commission. The meeting is taking place against the backdrop of the Dutch EU Presidency in the first six months of 2016.

Following the strong statements by the Oosting Committee and the continuing publicity regarding Ms van Miltenburg personally, Ms van Miltenburg has decided to resign from her position, effective immediately. Ms van Miltenburg will remain as Member of Parliament for the VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy).

From January to June 2016 the Netherlands will hold the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The States-General will play a major role during this Presidency. In a press conference on Tuesday 24 November, the President of the Senate, Ankie Broekers-Knol, and her House of Representatives counterpart, Anouchka van Miltenburg, announced the conference dates and programmes.

On Thursday 19 November 2015, the House had a debate about the Paris attacks. The spokespersons of the parliamentary groups wanted to hear from Prime Minister Mark Rutte, minister Ard van der Steur (Security and Justice) and minister Lodewijk Asscher (Social Affairs and Employment) what the consequences of the violence in the French capital are for the policy of the Dutch Government.

The live streaming of meetings at www.tweedekamer.nl has been updated. This makes it easier for you to follow the meetings of the House of Representatives on your computer or mobile device.

On 5 and 6 November, the Eerste Kamer and Tweede Kamer (the Dutch Senate and House of Representatives) host a ECPRD seminar titled “The practicalities, advantages and disadvantages of unicameral and bicameral parliamentary systems”.

The Temporary Committee on a Broad Definition of Welfare investigates the way GDP is measured and explores measures of welfare in a broad sense.

On Friday 16 October a special joint meeting took place in the Hall of Knights. On that that day it was exactly 200 years since both chambers held a joint meeting in The Hague for the first time.

As of October 2015 you can go on several special guided tours of the premises of the House of Representatives, which are given in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the House. Until the end of January 2016 you can join these guided tours, which have three different themes. Make sure to book on time, because the number of places on the tours is limited.

On 1 september 2015 Ms (Renata) Voss was sworn in as Secretary General of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands. Since 1 July 2015 she had been in office as succeeding Secretary General.

The summer recess of 2015 has come to an end. The first meeting of the House was on Tuesday 1 September, when the new Secretary General, mrs. Renata Voss, was sworn in.

On Friday 5 and Saturday 6 June 2015 members of the standing committee on Defense paid a visit to Dutch military personnel in the Middle East. The MPs gathered information about the Dutch contribution to the fight against the Islamic State (IS).

On Monday 18 May 2015 the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into Fyra started a series of public hearings. The committee carries out an inquiry into what went wrong with the high speed train Fyra.

The President of the Senate, Ms Ankie Broekers-Knol and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ms Anouchka van Miltenburg, have signed a cooperation agreement with the presidents of the parliaments of Slovakia and Malta, on Monday 20 April 2015 at the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian parliament in Rome.

On 31 March 2015 Mr Reinier van Zutphen was officially sworn in as the new National Ombudsman in the plenary sitting of the House of Representatives.