After months of negotiations, the parliamentary factions of GroenLinks, PvdA, VVD, CDA, D66, ChristenUnie and SP have reached an agreement on a new Climate Act for the Netherlands, NU.nl reports.
The proposed law states that the Netherlands has to reduce its emissions by 49 percent in 2030 and 95 percent in 2050 compared to emission levels in 1990. By 2050 all energy in the Netherlands must be generated sustainably.
Dutch police officers, soldiers, prosecutors and diplomats were spied on by Ukrainian and Russian secret services while they were in Ukraine after the MH17 disaster in 2014, RTL Nieuws reports based on well-informed sources.
The Netherlands is up to its ears in illegal ivory trade and therefore directly complicit in the mass slaughter of elephants in Africa, American network Avaaz and action group Elephant Action League conclude in a scientific study that will be published next month, AD reports.
Dutch municipalities will get the possibility to ban fireworks over New Year's. A majority in parliament supports this plan, and the government can live with such a local fireworks ban, turned out during a parliamentary debate on Wednesday evening, ANP reports.
If it is up to interim mayor Jozias van Aartsen, Amsterdam will not participate in an experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation. According to him, the situation in the Dutch capital deviates too much from that in other municipalities, Het Parool reports.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte refused to answer substantive questions about a tax deal between Shell and the Tax Authority in the Tweede Kamer on Tuesday, leaving parliamentarians furious.
The negotiations for a new climate law for the Netherlands are almost done. The negotiators for the seven parties involved in drafting this bill have agreed on the text for the law and will present it to their factions on on Tuesday. The negotiators agreed that the law must stipulate that CO2 emissions in the country must be reduced by 49 percent in 2030 when compared to 1990, and by 95 percent in 2050, NOS reports.
The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, wants the government to explain a controversial deal that Shell made with the Dutch tax authorities in 2005. As a result of this deal, Shell's British shareholders are exempt from dividend tax in the Netherlands, through which the Dutch treasury lost out on over 7 billion euros, newspaper Trouw reported on Saturday.
A majority in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, is in favor of a partial ban on wearing face-covering clothing. During a debate in the Senate, the VVD, CDA, PVV, ChristenUnie and SGP supported a legislative proposal for such a ban. The D66, SP, PvdA and GroenLinks are against it, NOS reports.
The new Zaanstad city council wants to take advantage of Amsterdam's popularity among tourists and the measures the Dutch capital is taking to spread out the crowds of visitors, according to the Zaandstad coalition agreement presented on Sunday, AT5 reports.
A legislative proposal by PVV parliamentarians Sietse Fritsma and Machiel de Graaf to send criminal Antilleans back to Aruba, Curacao or Sint Maarten got no support from other parties in parliament. "This is not possible and we should also not want this", CDA parliamentarian Madeleine van Toorenburg said in a debate in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, NOS reports.
On Thursday opposition parties in parliament insisted that Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs reverses his decision to postpone the reinforcement of 1,588 homes in the province of Groningen, NU.nl reports.
Over two months after the municipal elections in March, Rotterdam still doesn't have a new city government. Coalition talks now started between the VVD, D66, GroenLinks, PvdA and ChristenUnie-SGP. Leefbaar Rotterdam, which came out as the biggest party in the city after the elections, is not part of the negotiations, NOS reports.
The six parties together have 23 seats on the municipal council, the smallest possible majority on a council with 45 seats. Previous negotiations stranded when GroenLinks, PvdA and D66 could not agree to forming a coalition with Leefbaar and VVD.
Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs does not rule out that in the future the Netherlands will also hold Ukraine accountable for its role in the MH17 disaster. "There is no concrete legal ground for this, but the cabinet does not rule anything out", he said in a parliamentary debate on the government's decision to hold Russia accountable for its role in the downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight, NU.nl reports.
The new Amsterdam city government of GroenLinks, D66, PvdA and SP presented its coalition agreement on Thursday. "The coalition agreement is ambitious and will change things in the city", GroenLinks leader Rutger Groot Wassink said, according to Het Parool. "I always said: the city must become more sustainable, more honest and more democratic, and this agreement does that."
Below are the main plans in the new coalition agreement, Het Parool reports:
GroenLinks, D66, PvdA and SP successfully reached a coalition agreement for Amsterdam, D66 faction leader Reinier van Dantzig announced on Twitter. Amsterdam's new coalition will present their agreement on Thursday.
The negotiations happened in a "very good atmosphere", Van Dantzig said.
Sharon Dijksma is one of the new proposed aldermen for the PvdA in Amsterdam, the party announced. Should the coalition negotiations end successfully, she will handle the portfolio for traffic and transport, water and air quality, ANP reports.
Dijksma is currently a parliamentarian for the PvdA. In the previous government, she was first State Secretary of Economic Affairs and then State Secretary of Infrastructure and Environment.
The new Amsterdam college of mayor and aldermen will also be tough on tourism. The coalition negotiations between GroenLinks, D66, PvdA and SP are still ongoing, but the parties reached an agreement on their tourism plans, they announced on Wednesday morning, Het Parool reports.
A number of parliamentarians want an explanation from Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus about secret relationships within the Public Prosecution Service. On Wednesday NRC reported that two prosecutors lied about being in an relationship for years. And that two were appointed chief prosecutors by a prosecutor they had relationships with.
At this time Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs sees no reason to summon the Israeli ambassador for an explanation about the dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded who fell during demonstrations on the Palestinian side of the Gaza Strip on Monday, he said to parliament on Tuesday, NU.nl reports.
The entire opposition, with the exception of the SGP, supported a motion of censure against Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a parliamentary debate about secret memos surrounding the Rutte III government's decision to abolish dividend tax, NU.nl reports.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance expressed serious doubts about the abolition of the dividend tax during the Rutte III government formation, according to secret memos on this topic that the government released under pressure on Tuesday, AD reports.
During the government formation, documents were drawn up about the controversial abolition of the dividend tax - tax companies pay on profits paid out to shareholders, the Ministry of Finance confirmed to Trouw. Previously Prime Minster Mark Rutte said that the party leaders do not recall the existence of such documents, NU.nl reports.
The Ministry of Finances refuses to make the documents public, Trouw writes.
Government parties D66 and ChristenUnie are in talks with the Israeli ambassador and the representative of the Palestinian territories in the Netherlands about creating a direct connection between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of the Jordan, NOS reports.
The two parties want Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs to take the initiative in starting talks with Israel and the Palestinians about a corridor for buses and trucks, among other things. They believe that such a connection will lead to access to medical care, family reunification and trade for the people in Gaza.
