Speech Director General Government and Kingdom Relations, mister Gert Jan Buitendijk, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to welcome so many of you at the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations at the beginning of this international conference.

I am pleased to see that many of you have come to The Hague to exchange ideas together in the field of Smart Regulation and to engage in dialogue. Your presence shows a great interest in the subject, andthe importance of the subject.

The European Commission used to talk about“Better regulation.” We now speak of “smart regulation.” In other words, European policy in the field of better regulation is not something new. That is a good thing and it makes sense.

Europe and the Member States are continuously evolving and subject to change. I will take the Netherlands as an example. We find ourselves in interesting times. Public administration is changing rapidly. We are engaged in the greatest reforms of the last 30 years.As of 2015, we are going to transfertasks in the field of health care, childcare and work from the State to the municipalities. What will this mean for the relationship to Europe?

Europeincreasingly influences national legislation and increasingly defines our national policy frameworks. There is more European cooperation. At the same time, there is a decentralizing movement in the Netherlands. This movement in the Netherlandsis not unique either.

This growing influence, reforms in public administration, the current economic climate and public opinion lead to a current discussiononthe improvement of Europe,the relations to it, and the division of tasks between the national government and the European Union, also known as the principle of subsidiarity. Another question to consider is: where tasks are rightly organized at European level, how do we ensure that they are proportional and feasible?

Cities, local authorities and regional authorities are regarded as an important factor of the Dutch economy. Therefore, it is imperative that they are not confronted with unworkable or unnecessarily burdensome regulations from Europe. This is economically undesirable not only for the local authorities, but also for citizens and businesses.

We are therefore pleased

  • that our colleagues at Foreign Affairs will tell us more about the Dutch subsidiarity exercisethis morning
  • that the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, also on behalf of the Dutch representation of the provinces, will give its view on this
  • and finally, that our esteemed colleague and chair of the High Level Group on Governance will show us a bit of Austrian cuisine.

The problem that I have outlined is a challenge. It requires paying attention to the impact of EU legislation on the actual execution and implementationat an early stage of the EU’s decision-making process. How can we organize this and what is the importance ofthe current Smart Regulation discussionwith regards to this?

In the Netherlands,Europe is the fourth tier of government, and part of our intergovernmental relations. These tiers of government are in motion. Both Europe and Dutch public administration are in development. This offers opportunities, now and in the future.

This future is exciting and dynamic. What will the result of May 22entail? What will the plans of the new Commission look like? Finally, what will we, the Netherlands,achievetogether with you during our presidency in 2016?

I hope that I leave you with a first starting signalfor an exciting, informative and productive meeting. I wish you all a very good conference.

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