Advisory report

The Council observes that current government policy and its associated instruments offer insufficient scope to react on societal developments.

• Current transport policy is sectorally organised and thus segmented: each transport mode has its own instruments, funding and tax incentives.
• Governments tend to view problems from the perspective of their own legally defined responsibilities, such as the roads authority or as the public licensing authority for the national railway network or regional public transport.
• Current accessibility policy is still too narrowly focused on infrastructure and mobility (speed). Not enough attention is paid to the proximity of facilities and activities.

Main recommendations

To ensure that facilities and activities in urban areas remain accessible in the future, the Council argues that a comprehensive accessibility policy be drawn up, one which offers people the ability to reach as many activities as possible within an acceptable travel time. This will entail:

• streamlining laws and regulations;
• identifying authorities with prioritised accessibility challenges in common, and providing collective funding to tackle these challenges;
• making the tax and subsidy system for transport less rigid and more demand-led;
• considering spatial planning solutions as well as mobility solutions for each land use or infrastructure decision.

Publication date

This advisory report was presented to Melanie Schultz van Haegen, the minister of infrastructure and the environment, on 26 January 2017 during a workshop with stakeholders.

More information

For more information, please contact Nicole van Buren (project leader), email: nicole.van.buren@rli.nl

Key recommendations

Give priority to core economic areas

The Council advises the new Dutch Government, which will be appointed in 2017, to implement an integrated policy for improving the country’s international competitiveness and business climate. An integrated vision on the significance of core economic areas (such as the northern and southern wings of the Randstad and the Eindhoven region) for the business climate will allow public-sector investments to be considered within a broader perspective and lead to better policy choices. The Council advises being explicit about the potential contribution of both ports alongside other factors. A policy that uncritically invests in merely increasing the volumes flowing through the ports is inappropriate. Government must first investigate how much volume is needed to achieve critical mass: as long as this level is attained, many economic functions can still be guaranteed while providing scope for other public interests.

A 2040 Business Climate Strategy

The Council acknowledges that, each in its own way, the Port of Rotterdam and Schiphol Airport are and will remain essential to the Dutch business climate. However, mainports are only part of the picture. Excellent digital infrastructure, technological innovation, but also good environmental quality and amenities are critical for attracting businesses, knowledge and talent. Meanwhile, regions such as southeast Asia are becoming increasingly attractive as places to locate headquarters and other business activities. Because of this, the Council advises the Dutch Government to draw up a Business Climate Strategy for 2040. The aim of this strategy should be to bolster the vital economic core areas of the Netherlands. According to the Council, the interaction and cohesion between these core areas with the Port of Rotterdam and Schiphol Airport as well as with the knowledge centre around Eindhoven and with respect to digital infrastructure are more important for the earning potential for the Netherlands than their individual contributions.

Strengthening the regional economic development strategy

An integrated vision on the significance of the core economic areas for the business climate will provide a broader perspective on public-sector investments and allow better policy decisions to be made. The Council advises assessing the different investment options in the 2040 Business Climate Strategy according to their effect on the business climate and to choose those with the greatest impact. The evaluation should not be confined to hard factors such as infrastructure, but include softer factors such as art, green spaces and social inclusion as well. According to the Council, the recent administrative agreement on the regional economic development strategy (REOS) provides a good basis for this. This approach should therefore be strengthened. The REOS takes promising economic developments in urban regions as its point of departure. This is a broader approach than a specific mainport policy and, according to the Council, offers a better outlook for sustained economic success as a result. Improving the complementarity of core economic areas will allow better economic and social results to be achieved. A good business climate is obviously important for attracting international companies, but this climate is also an indication of the variety of qualities that give the Netherlands a high standard of living and make it such a nice place to be – not just for companies and their employees, but everyone.

The Council makes the following recommendations in its advisory report ‘Beyond Mainports’:

a) Create interlinkages between core economic areas in a 2040 Business Climate Strategy

• Investigate how much volume flows are necessary to achieve a critical mass

b) Consider digital infrastructure as an important precondition for the business climate

• invest in safety and open access to digital infrastructure

• stimulate data-driven innovation and knowledge

c) Link sectoral policy challenges together in an integrated Business Climate Strategy

• strengthen the REOS-approach

• attach more value to soft business climate factors

• use the Netherlands as a living lab

d) initiate a wider debate on urgent policy issues

Publication date

On Friday 1 July 2016, Secretary-General Maarten Camps (Ministry of Economic Affairs) and Director-General Mark Frequin (Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment) officially received the advisory report ‘Beyond Mainports’ on behalf of their respective ministers.

An English translation of Part 1 of ‘Beyond Mainports’ is available now.

Request for advice

This advisory report investigates the tension between policy and legislation developed at the European level and the implementation of environmental and planning policy at the regional level.The following questions guided the research:

• What difficulties and conflicts are found at the regional level as a result of environmental legislation and to what extent can they be attributed to European policy?
• What creates tension between different tiers of government?
• What can the different government authorities and other stakeholders do in the European policymaking process to reduce these tensions?

In order to gain insight into this complex process – from getting issues on the European agenda to local implementation – Rli carried out a literature study, conducted interviews, held workshops and analysed examples of environmental and infrastructure policies. The case studies provide insight into how the political process occurs in practice, where friction arises (from the preparatory stage of EU laws and regulations up to their implementation) and where innovative solutions were discovered. The case study analyses are primarily intended to discover where tensions arise and what has been, or could be, learned from them.

Key recommendations

The Rli recommends improving coordination and exchange between governmental levels, which in turn will improve communication between European policy development and implementation. In brief, the Rli makes the following suggestions for the national government, subnational authorities and the wider community:

• Act strategically during the preparatory stage
• Develop smart collaboration between national and subnational authorities and the public
• Promote other governance options than regulation
• Acknowledge regional diversity by allowing flexibility for local interpretation
• View borders as European connections
• Reduce the auditing and reporting burden

Publication Date 

The advice ‘Room for the region in European policy’ was presented to the Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment on September 21, 2015.

Information or response 

For more information or to respond, please contact Hannah Koutstaal, project leader,hannah.koutstaal@rli.nl

Key recommendations

In the advisory report the Council presents a number of recommendations to the State and to provinces, regions and municipalities. The Council also calls for the further development of a circular economy in Europe through the Dutch presidency of the EU.

The crux of the recommendations is to encourage the State to draw up a government-wide circular agenda and link this to strategic goals and concrete actions for the different departments. In this way, a shared dot on the horizon is linked to concrete implementation measures. Using the inherent strengths of each party as a starting point, the various ministries should take specific measures which are in line with their task descriptions. In the advice, proposals are made to this end, among other things through an enterprise policy that focuses on promising chains that serve as a figurehead for the Dutch circular economy; proposals for a well thought-out government policy on infrastructure and logistics to support changing transport flows in the Netherlands; and a prominent position for the circular economy on the National Science Agenda.

Using inherent strengths as a starting point must also be at the heart of the policies developed by local and regional governments. Some of the actions ensuing from those policies are standard measures that each local or regional government body should take: for example, the separation and recycling of waste flows needs to be properly organised in each municipality. Other actions consist of building on and fortifying the inherent strengths in the region (such as economic activity, specific flows et cetera). This is how regions distinguish themselves from one other, each with a specific mix of regeneration, sharing economy, the aim to realise a zero waste region and the exchange of residual flows between companies (industrial symbiosis). In conclusion, it is essential that government bodies set the right example at all scale levels, for example through a purchasing and procurement policy based on circular starting points.

Publication date

The advisory report ‘Circular economy: from wish to practice’ was presented to the Minister of Economic Affairs and the Minister for the Environment on June 18, 2015.

Hearing EESC ‘Making the circular economy happen’ 28 January 2016

Circular economy: On the 28th of January 2016 the European Economic Social Committee (EESC) organised a hearing ‘Making the circular economy happen’. Stakeholders were asked to give their opinion on the European Circular Economy package, which the European Commission presented on 2 December 2015. The EESC will gather these inputs for his opinion on the European Circular Economy package. Colleague advisory councils (EEAC) informed the Rli about this possibility to give input.

The advisory report of the Rli ‘Circular economy: from wish to practice’ (June 2015) gives a systematic approach for all governmental levels. The input for the EESC is written accordingly to this systematic approach.

Read the input for the hearing EESC ‘Making the circular economy happen’ (pdf 140Kb)

Key recommendations

In its national property portfolio strategy, the Government affirmed its ambition to increase policy control over how national government real estate is managed. The Council concurs with this ambition. The desire to have the public interest play a guiding role has implications for decision-making. The most important recommendations of the Council are:

• Choose a disposition strategy in which public interests are duly weighed against the potential financial gain.
• Use regional and local policies in addition to those of the national government to determine what is in the public interest. Involve other tiers of government at an early stage in the search for appropriate future uses for buildings being vacated, and draw up comprehensive plans in each province for surplus national government real estate.
• Use the MIRT programme as a framework for regional agreements with provinces and municipalities about the future of national government properties being vacated.
• The Council advises against revising established policies that affect national real estate, but where necessary considering adjusting the timeframe of the disposal or temporary (re)use.
• Require all future policies with consequences for property to contain an explicit real estate statement that describes these effects and how they were included in the decision-making process.

Date of publication

On 15 December 2014 the Council presented its advice ‘Vrijkomend rijksvastgoed: over maatschappelijke doelen en geld’ [Managing National Government Surplus Real Estate: Balancing public interest and financial gain] to Stef Blok, Minister for Housing and the Central Government Sector.

At the same event, the Board of Government Advisors presented its advice ‘Rijksvastgoed in beweging’ [National Government Real Estate on the Move] (pdf, 271 Kb), which contains guidelines for implementation.