The executive committee of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, asked former D66 leader Alexander Pechtold to lead the renovation of the Binnenhof in The Hague, State Secretary Raymond Knops of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations said in a letter on Wednesday evening. Pechtold was chosen to be "process chairman" due to his "knowledge and expertise", Knops said, NOS reports.
Tweede Kamer
Jun 11 '19 09:43
Foundation Strijd tegen Misbruik is demanding that the Netherlands bans the pedophile manual - an over 1 thousand page handbook which explains in detail how pedophiles can lure, groom, and abuse children, and how to do so without anyone finding out. The foundation against abuse will take the matter to court if the government refuses to intervene, AD reports.
Jun 8 '19 14:09
The Jewish people put up "very little resistance" in World War Two, exacerbating the Holocaust, said Toine Beukering in an interview with the Telegraaf. The 60-year-old former brigadier general has never served in politics, but has been put forward by far right wing nationalist party Forum voor Democratie as a candidate to lead the Dutch senate.
Jun 5 '19 18:45
New rules around public broadcasting in the Netherlands means that the broadcasters will no longer be distributed before 8 p.m. The websites of the broadcasters will also go completely ad-free when the rules take effect, according to NOS.
The new strategy will be put forward by Arie Slob, the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education and Media. His letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, was not yet released on Wednesday afternoon.
Jun 5 '19 14:10
A petition by the Red Cross to give all high school pupils first aid lessons was signed by more than 50 thousand people. According to the Red Cross, teenagers and young people want to help victims of a car accident for example, but they know too little about how to do it and are therefore afraid. If they are taught first aid at school, helping becomes easier, NOS reports.
Jun 3 '19 16:50
Overdue maintenance on bridges and tunnels can lead to a traffic disaster on the Dutch road network, according to a study by engineering firm Sweco on behalf of Bouwend Nederland. Traffic organizations ANWB and TLN call on parliamentarians to intervene. "The flow to the periphery is seriously impeded; cities can become unreachable", the groups wrote in a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, AD reports.
May 29 '19 08:41
Prime Minister Mark Rutte delayed the publication of the planning offices' climate agreement calculations until after Budget Day, because he thought a debate about the climate would be "undesirable" at this point, Nieuwsuur reports based on documents it received by appealing to the Government Information Act. Opposition parties in parliament are outraged and want a quick explanation from Rutte about the pressure he exerted on the planning offices to delay this publication, NOS reports.
May 22 '19 08:04
Mark Harbers resigned as State Secretary for Justice and Security on Tuesday evening. The VVD State Secretary, who is responsible for asylum, stepped down after it became known that his Ministry deliberately reported incomplete figures on crimes committed by asylum seekers in a report.
May 17 '19 09:33
The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, wants to double the prison sentence for using or possessing a hand grenade from four to eight years. Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security approves of this proposal, AD reports.
May 16 '19 11:00
The Ministry of Justice and Security hid the number of serious crimes committed by asylum seekers in the Netherlands by including crimes like sexual offenses, aggravated assaults, and murder and manslaughter or attempts thereto under the heading of "other" in figures released to parliament, the Telegraaf reports.
Apr 26 '19 12:30
Dutch telecom provider KPN will work with controversial Chinese company Huawei for the construction of its 5G network, though a "western" company will be used for the "critical core" of this network, KPN said on Friday, NU.nl reports.
The partnership with Huawei will center around modernizing KPN's mobile network. According to the Dutch company, this collaboration is all about preparatory work and the agreement could be reversed to comply with Dutch government policy.
Apr 25 '19 11:50
Gokmen T., the suspected gunman in a mass shooting in Utrecht on March 18th, assaulted a prison employee a few weeks before the attack on 24 Oktoberplein, Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said in a letter to the Tweede Kamer, the Volkskrant reports.
Apr 25 '19 10:10
A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, want the number of night flights at Schiphol to be reduced. Some parties even want night flights to be scrapped completely. The Kamer will discuss aviation with Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen of Infrastructure and Water Management on Thursday, RTL Nieuws reports.
Apr 25 '19 08:59
Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema and a majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, are all against extremist Christian preacher Steven Anderson visiting the Netherlands. The American preacher plans to do some "soul winning" and give a sermon in Amsterdam on May 23rd.
Apr 24 '19 11:00
The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, currently has nearly 200 debates that still have to be held. New debates are added to the list almost daily. "I am a bit worried about that", Kamer president Khadija Arib said to RTL Nieuws.
Parliamentarians can request debates on topics that are in the news. "It is also an interaction between MPs and the media", Arib said. "If you request a debate, you as parliamentarian indicate that you think it is very important. A lot of debates are, of course, justified."
Apr 24 '19 09:19
COC Nederland wants the Netherlands to deny entry to American preacher Steven Anderson. The LGBTQ interest group calls on State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security to ban him from entering the Netherlands, NOS reports.
Apr 9 '19 09:18
More than 40 thousand people signed a petition to make paying for sex a punishable offense. Exxpose, the Christian inspired and politically independent youth movement that initiated this petition, will hand it to the Tweede Kamer this week, the Volkskrant reports.
Apr 4 '19 08:40
Minister Sander Dakker for Legal Protection acknowledged in a parliamentary debate on Wednesday that he bears political responsibility for mistakes made in the treatment of Michael P., the man who raped and murdered 25-year-old Anne Faber from Utrecht in 2017. At the same time he asked parliament to trust him to also solve the problems. He survived the debate, NU.nl reports.
"I feel the responsibility in my every fiber", Dekker said. "One of my most important tasks is to protect society from people like Michael P."
Mar 19 '19 14:38
The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, held a moment of silence on Tuesday afternoon to commemorate the three victims killed in a shooting on 24 Oktoberplein in Utrecht on Monday. The President of the Tweede Kamer, Khadija Arib, opened Tuesday's weekly question and answer session speaking in honor of the victims in Utrecht and also the fifty people killed in a shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Mar 6 '19 15:10
The police had to remove a man from the public gallery in the Tweede Kamer on Wednesday afternoon for disrupting the parliamentary debate. The man tried to start a discussion with State Secretary Raymond Knops of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations by screaming at him from the gallery. The elderly man seemed to be confused and could barely stand on his feet, AD reports.
Mar 6 '19 07:53
Not informing the Tweede Kamer about the government purchasing shares in Air France-KLM was a "judgment call", Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance said in a debate on the matter on Tuesday. He considered all variants of parliamentary involvement in the purchase. "Considering all the pluses and minuses, this was the most ideal, but an ideal outcome does not exist", he said, NOS reports.
Mar 5 '19 14:50
A parliamentary inquiry will be done into gas extraction in Groningen. The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, unanimously supported this. According to the Kamer, it will be good for the restoration of Groningen's trust in politics if there is accountability for choices made by persons, organizations and institutions. When exactly the inquiry will start is not yet clear, but it is unlikely that it will start earlier than next year, NOS reports.
Feb 20 '19 14:10
Facebook will not be able to guarantee that the company is transparent about the placement of political advertisements before the provincial states elections next month, Minister Kasja Ollongren of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations wrote in a letter to parliament, NOS reports.
Feb 19 '19 13:00
The Dutch government used old figures when calculating the average energy bill increase for this year, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate acknowledged to NOS after reports in AD.
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