THE DUTCH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TWEEDE KAMER Last updated on 30/03/2021 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/relnatparl [email protected] Photo credits: Dutch House of Representatives 1. AT A GLANCE The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with its monarch King Willem-Alexander. Since 1848 it has been governed as a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, organised as a unitary state. The Dutch Parliament "Staten-Generaal" is a bicameral body. It consists of two chambers, both of which are elected for four-year terms. The Senate, the Eerste Kamer is indirectly elected. It consists of 75 members and is elected by the (directly elected) members of the 12 provincial state councils, known as the "staten". The 150 members of the House of Representatives, the Tweede Kamer, are directly elected through a national party-list system, on the basis of proportional representation. On 26 October 2017 the third Cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Rutte took office. Four political parties formed the governing coalition: People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Democrats 66 (D66) and Christian Union (CU). On 15 January 2021 the government resigned over the child benefits affair. The government will stay on in caretaker capacity until a new government will be formed, following the general elections that took place on 17 March 2021. 2. COMPOSITION Party EP affiliation % Seats Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (VVD) 21,87% 34 People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Democraten 66 (D66) 15,02% 24 Democrats 66 Partij Voor de Vrijheid (PVV) 10,79% 17 Party for Freedom Christen Democratisch Appèl (CDA) 9,50% 15 Christian Democratic Appeal Socialistische Partij (SP) Non-affiliated 5,98% 9 Socialist Party Partij van der Arbeid (PvdA) 5,73% 9 Labour Party GroenLinks (GL) 5,16% 8 Green Left Directorate-General for the Presidency Directorate for Relations with National Parliaments Forum voor Democratie 8 Non-affiliated 5,02% Forum For Democracy (FvD) Partij voor de Dieren (PvdD) 3,84% 6 Party for the Animals ChristenUnie (CU) 3,37% 5 Christian Union Volt 2,42% 3 1 JA21 2,37% 3 Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (SGP) 2,07% 3 Reformed Political Party DENK Non-affiliated 2,03% 3 50PLUS Non-affiliated 1,02% 1 BoerBurgerBeweging Non-affiliated 1,00% 1 Farmer-Citizen Movement BIJ1 Non-affiliated 0,84% 1 100% 150 Turnout 78,7% . The next elections will be held in 2025. 3. OFFICEHOLDERS Speaker of the Dutch House of Representatives Chair of the Standing Committee on European Affairs Ms Khadija Arib (PvdA), Mr Hayke Veldman (VVD), since 13 January 2016 since 19 February 2019 Secretary-General of the Dutch House of Representatives: Ms Simone Roos since 7 June 2018 1 Volt is a pan-European Party. A German Member of Volt was elected in the EP in 2019. He joined the Greens/EFA group. 2 DATE 30/03/2021 4. RELATIONS WITH MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Participation rights for Dutch MEPs in plenary Partially (Upon invitation) sittings Participation rights for Dutch MEPs in committee Partially (Upon invitation) meetings Availability of videoconferencing system in Dutch Yes House of Representatives 5. INFORMATION LINKS Official website: http://www.houseofrepresentatives.nl Rules of procedure in English List of committees Recent documents submitted by the Dutch House of Representatives to the Interparliamentary EU Information Exchange (IPEX) European Parliament Information Office in The Hague 6. CONTACTS CONTACT- EP Directorate for Relations with CONTACT- Brussels-based contact of the Dutch National Parliaments: House of Representatives: Mr Jesús Gómez Ms Janneke Timmer Office MTY 07R004, 1047 Brussels Office MTY04R004, 1047 Brussels Phone +32 2 28 32157 Tel. +32 (0)2 28 31243 [email protected] [email protected] 3 DATE 30/03/2021 .