For the first time ever, a member of the Dutch government attended the commemoration fo the Armenian genocide of 1915 and 1916 in Yerevan.
State Secretary Menno Snel of Finance was at the ceremony in the Armenian capital, at the insistence of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament. In the presence of the other foreign guests, he lay flowers at the monument for the victims, NOS reports.
Children's Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer is calling on the government to bring Dutch kids stuck in camps in Syria back to the Netherlands. "Doing nothing is unacceptable and in violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child", she said on Thursday. "The Netherlands must to everything in its power to bring these children back." ANP reports.
A coalition of journalists, lawyers, civil society organizations, and IT- and tech companies is preparing a lawsuit to postpone the implementation of the new law for the Dutch intelligence and security services, NU.nl reports.
State Secretary Menno Snel of Finance will attend the commemoration of the Armenian genocide in Armenia next week. This is the first time a member of the Dutch government will be present at the commemoration. From now on a Dutch Minister or State Secretary will attend the commemoration every five years, RTL Nieuws reports.
Shell and Exxon wants the government to pay them billions of euros in compensation for the gas that will not be extracted from Groningen now that the government is gradually reducing gas production in the province to zero, NOS reports.
Netherlands members of parliament will permit an investigation to determine whether a pattern of sexual harassment and sexual intimidation occurs in the Dutch government. After the summer, employees will be asked whether they have had to endure unwanted intimacies, according to a policy approved by the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament.
The municipality of The Hague is calling on the Dutch government to keep funding a program that helps prostitutes get out of sex work and build up a new living. Alderman Karsten Klein will send a letter with this call to the government this week, and hopes to also get support from his colleagues in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, NOS reports.
Turkish Minister Fatma Betul Kaya is dropping a lawsuit filed against the Netherlands, the Telgraaf reports based on information from a "highly placed" Turkish source. In the lawsuit she accused the Netherlands of illegally naming her an unwelcome foreigner and deporting her from the Netherlands in March.
There were indications that the Turkish Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya's security guards were carrying weapons during disturbances at the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam last month, the Dutch government wrote to parliament on Monday. The police therefore considered the guards "armed and dangerous". No weapons were found after they were arrested, AD reports.
Dutch petroleum company NAM has withdrawn from handling claims related to earthquake damage or any other problems caused by gas extraction in Groningen, RTV Noord reports based on sources within NAM. This follows a report the Dutch Safety Board published on Thursday which states that the Dutch government should be responsible for handling Groningen fracking damage claims, not NAM, NU.nl reports.
The Dutch government and Dutch companies are very poorly protected against cyber attacks and crime, according to a report by the Rathenau Institute. Current measures against cyber threats are insufficient and strengthening cyber security in the Netherlands should be a higher priority, the report says according to ANP.
The report, titled A never run race was done at the request of the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security and intelligence service AIVD.
The Dutch government made approximately 450 million euros by selling 20.4 million shares in former Fortis insurer ASR. The shares were sold for 22.15 euros each, NLFI announced on Friday, ANP reports.
The NLFI is the foundation that manages the Dutch government's shares in financial institutions.
With the sale of 20.4 million shares on Thursday, the government's share of ASR reduced from 63.7 percent to 50.1 percent. the government plans to further reduce its share in ASR, but has to wait at least 90 days before another transaction can happen.
The Dutch government is doing too little to help refugees find work, according to the social economic council SER in a report released on Friday, ANP reports.
The SER is an advisory body of employers, trade unions and independent experts.
Refugees who were granted asylum in the Netherlands since 2013 have to pay for their integration course themselves. According to the SER, this is a big problem. Only 10 percent of people who received refugee status last year found a job relatively quickly, according to figures from the municipalities. The rest have to live on welfare.
Discussions between the government and municipalities on shelter and provisions for failed asylum seekers and other undocumented migrants failed. No agreement could be reached, State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff of Security and Justice announced on Monday, NU.nl reports.
Romano van der Dussen plans to sue the Dutch government for the 12 years he spent in a Spanish prison for a crime he did not commit, NRC reports. The Dutch man feels that the Netherlands was "seriously negligent" in his case and he therefore plans to demand compensation.
Some 300 Q-fever patients are suing the Dutch government for compensation. They feel the government waited too long to take action after the disease broke out on a goat farm in Herpen, Brabant in 2007. The trial starts in the court in The Hague today
Many Dutch are irritated by the government. The biggest annoyance is that civil servants often don't seem capable of solving citizens' problems, according to a study among 500 Dutch commissioned by National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen.
The Dutch government often responds too slowly to technological developments like self-driving cars, robotics and fast growing internet companies like Uber and Airbnb, according to the Central Planning Bureau in a report. If nothing change, the Netherlands will lose its leading position in the IT field, the CPB warns
Environmental group Milieudefensie, the Dutch Friends of the Earth, is suing the Dutch government over air pollution in the country. The group is demanding that the country complies to European standards within six months
The government is calling on Turkish-Dutch citizens to report if they are threatened by supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Minister Bert Koenders of Foreign Affairs wrote in a letter to parliament on Thursday
Over 20 years after the fall of Srebrenica, 12 veterans from Dutchbat III are suing the Dutch government for sending them on an "impossible mission", their lawyers announced on Thursday. According to lawyers Michael Ruperti and Klaas Arjen Krikke, the government was "seriously negligent and careless"
The Dutch government's approach to helping citizens with their debts is definitely lacking, National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen writes in a critical report. Those who ask the government for help with their debt, are faced by obstacle after obstacle
Facebook received 271 requests for information from the Dutch authorities last year. About 73 percent of these requests were granted or partially granted, according to a biannual report on requests by governments the social media site published on Thursday.
Dutch government's requests to obtain data from Apple devices highly increased during the second half of 2015, according to a biannual report by Apple. In total the Dutch authorities submitted data requests for 341 Apple devices, in 39 requests.
