State-owned enterprises are vital to the energy transition and greater strategic autonomy

Press release Rli - 9 october 2025

State-owned enterprises are an overlooked government instrument and the government is missing out on opportunities by not fully exploiting their potential. State-owned enterprises are essential to the robust and future-proof development of the living environment. An open and fresh approach to state-owned enterprises as a government instrument is urgently needed. This is the conclusion reached by the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli) in its advisory report 'Participation without prejudice: addressing living environment issues with state-owned enterprises', which was presented 9 October 2025.

The contribution of state-owned enterprises to environmental quality often goes unnoticed

State-owned enterprises are companies in which the government holds shares. Examples include the Port of Rotterdam, Invest-NL, Energie Beheer Nederland and water company Vitens. Due to past problems, state-owned enterprises are often associated with political and financial risks. This past obscures the crucial contribution that the more than 350 existing state-owned enterprises make to the quality of the physical living environment every day. As well as the contribution that existing and new state-owned enterprises can potentially make to upgrading and transforming our industry, expanding and building new infrastructure for our future energy system, or enhancing our economic security (by protecting companies from undesirable foreign actors).

Lack of collaboration between government and state-owned enterprises

Three problems are currently preventing state-owned enterprises from being utilised to their full potential: 1. the public interests are often not clearly defined, 2. coordination between the government as shareholder and as policymaker is inadequate, and 3. the government lacks specialist knowledge for an even dialogue between government and state-owned enterprises.

Moreover, the government is too cautious in its approach to entering into new state-owned enterprises. The government is therefore acting 'with one hand tied behind its back' in a rapidly changing geopolitical environment.

Towards an open and fresh approach to state-owned enterprises as a government instrument

The Council calls for an open and fresh approach to state-owned enterprises, with a greater focus on the opportunities and possibilities that this instrument offers. To this end, the Council’s recommendations are to:

1. Improve cooperation with the existing state-owned enterprises, to better enable them to safeguard public interests from a wellbeing perspective and with a long-term focus. A number of measures are required to achieve this, such as defining the public interests in collaboration with the state-owned enterprises.

2. Make full use of all possibilities offered by the assessment framework for entering into state-owned enterprises, to ensure that this instrument is considered more often when addressing major challenges in the physical living environment.

Note for editors/not for publication

To request interviews, please contact the Council’s Communication Officer Anneke Verschoor at anneke.verschoor@rli.nl or on +31 6 1535 9540.

For more information about the advisory report, please contact the project leader, Joris Stok, at joris.stok@rli.nl

The advisory report will be available for download at www.rli.nl from 5.00 p.m. on 9 October 2025.