Council starts preparing advisory report on influencing state-owned enterprises

In October 2024, the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure started the process that will culminate in the advisory report ‘The government as a shareholder’. Three Council members will sit on the committee that will guide this advisory process. They are Jeanet van Antwerpen (Council member and committee chair), Renée Bergkamp (Council member and committee member) and Marnix Kluiters (junior Council member and committee member). In addition, Marike van Lier Lels (member of the Supervisory Board of Post-NL) acts as external committee member. The aim is to finalise the advisory report before the summer recess in 2025. 

Woman looking across the trading floor at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange

The term ‘state-owned enterprises’ refers to private companies in which the government holds shares. There are companies in which the government holds all of the shares and others in which it is one of several shareholders. 

This advisory process has been prompted, on the one hand, by the discussion about the role of activist shareholders and what this means for state-owned enterprises and, on the other, by the discussion about expanding the role of existing shareholdings and the possible need for new state-owned enterprises. The question to be answered in the report is:

How can – and to what extent should – the government influence existing and possible new state-owned enterprises in view of the major challenges relating to the physical environment and infrastructure? 

The report should result in recommendations for the central government, local and regional authorities, and executive and supervisory board members of state-owned enterprises. The emphasis will be on providing a concrete action perspective for influencing state-owned enterprises. This relates both to the options available for exerting an influence and the conditions under which these can best be used. As a secondary point, we will also consider the conditions under which state-owned enterprises are desirable as a tool.

Read more about the advisory report ‘The government as a shareholder’

For more information about the advisory report or to submit remarks, please contact the project leader, Joris Stok, at joris.stok@rli.nl or on +31 (0)6 13246502.