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Dutch voices in Brussels: the priorities of MEPs

20-11-2024

Almost six months ago we elected a new European Parliament. With a new Parliament comes a new College of Commissioners, and the appointment of this team was finalized last summer. Traditionally, before their start, these Commissioners are questioned by Parliament on their knowledge, competencies, integrity and previous work experience. Only if 2/3 of MEPs approve the nominated candidate can the Commissioner actually start.

Over the last two weeks all 26 candidates were interviewed. Only Commission President Ursula von der Leyen did not have to visit, she had already been approved in September. In this blog, colleagues Valérie Mendes de León and Alyssa Guerrouche evaluate the hearing. They analyze which policy areas Dutch MEPs prioritized in the interrogations, to see what we can expect from these 31 MEPs over the next five years.

But first: how does a hearing go?

An hearing lasts three hours. Committees that deal with a Commissioner-designate’s portfolio may ask questions. In the case of Commissioner-designate Wopke Hoekstra (climate, net-zero and clean growth), these were the Environment (ENVI), Industry (ITRE) and Economy (ECON) committees. In three rounds, MEPs were allowed to question the Commissioner-designate, with speaking time divided according to the size of the political group. As such, the European People’s Party got the most speaking time, the Socialists and Democrats slightly less and that dwindled down to the smallest groups such as the Left and the ultra-right Europe of Sovereign Nations.

The questions Parliamentarians ask are aligned within their political family. Each family has their own policy priorities, and which they wanted to showcase during a hearing. Our analysis below will look at what Dutch MEPs brought in, and how often they asked a question, to say something about their position in Parliament. In doing so, we want to make two nuances: first, there is limited time. Not all MEPs can be present at every hearing (there were always two at the same time) and the question time has to be divided among all members. Second, although the questions asked almost always correspond to the MEP’s own priorities (for example, because they have worked on or debated the topic before) it does not cover the full scope of the MEP’s work.

Starting with the numbers

All told, Dutch MEPs spoke a total of 48 times during the 19 of the 27 hearings they attended. A fairly average score for the number of MEPs the Netherlands has in Brussels. Of all the contributions, most came from Bert-Jan Ruissen (SGP/ECH); three MEPs did not get the chance to ask anything and those were Bart Groothuis (VVD/Renew), Jeroen Lenaers (CDA/EPP) and Sebastiaan Kruis (PVV/PfE). Interestingly, no direct link can be made between a MEP’s position in his group and their speaking time. For instance, we saw that Bas Eickhout as co-chair of the Greens and Mohammed Chahim as vice-chair of S&D did not play a bigger role than their fellow group members.

MEPs: who said what?

The candidate European Commissioner who could address the most Dutch people was Ireland’s Michael McGrath, responsible for policy on consumers, the rule of law and justice. Dutch interest in this is also partly reflected in the priorities of Dutch MEPs. Looking at the 48 questions asked during the various hearings, we can identify three policy themes that seem to be priorities for this team: migration, climate and business policy. Below we briefly outline them.

Migration

As in the Dutch Parliament, migration is a hot topic in Brussels, especially due to growth on the (extreme) right flanks. The European Asylum and Migration Pact was adopted last year after years of negotiation, but it divides the current Parliament again. Migration was touched upon during various hearings, notably those of Croatia’s Dubravka Suica (Mediterranean) and Austria’s Magnus Brunner (home affairs and migration). The European Parliament carries a line of debate that can be extended to the Dutch Parliament: from concrete agreements on returning migrants led by the PVV (Sebastiaan Stöteler) and the VVD (Malik Azmani) to safeguarding human rights by the Greens (Tineke Strik).

Climate

It was interesting to see that 5 Dutch people were present at the hearing of Wopke Hoekstra, who has been designated as European Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero and Clean Growth and none at the designated Swedish environmental chief Jessika Roswall. Although European Commissioners do not represent their member state, the lines are often shorter with their own MEPs. Hoekstra’s contribution was deemed positive. As expected, D66 pushed for strict enforcement by Hoekstra of climate targets in member states and GroenLinks/PvdA’s Chahim focused on commitments to CCS guidelines and making industry more sustainable. From the Greens, no MEP were present at Hoekstra, they took their chance to ask questions to the candidate for Trade (Catarina Vieira on fossil subsidies) and the candidate for Agriculture (Anna Strolenberg on plant-based food production). Across the board, climate appears to be one of the most important points for Dutch MEPs and the expectation is that a large part of them will (continue to) profile themselves on this.

Business policy

Another priority of Dutch MEPs is business policy. Think of (international) taxes, but also the buzz words competitiveness and tax relief for SMEs came up. For example, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (D66/Renew) and Tom Berendsen (CDA/EPP) called for simplifying tax rules to stimulate innovation and economic growth. Anouk van Brug (VVD/Renew) spoke out about using tax advantages to stimulate innovation and green growth within the EU. Fiscal measures were discussed not only for businesses; Brigitte van den Berg (D66/Renew) asked about this in view of the shortage of affordable housing in the EU – one of her focal points for the coming five years.

Finally, a number of MEPs entering a second term continue where they left off last term. Lara Wolters (GL-PvdA/S&D) asked three Commissioners-designate questions about the implementation of the reporting laws CSRD and CSDDD – on both she was (shadow) rapporteur. And Kim van Sparrentak as former shadow rapporteur on the AI Act focused on AI in the workplace to prevent discrimination through algorithms. We can expect they will continue their work on these topics the next 5 years.

Looking ahead

These three topics are just a sample of the portfolios that Dutch MEPs will take on over the next five years. Past mandates have shown that Dutch people in Parliament are very active members and do not shy away from taking on multiple rapporteurships: influential positions on new legislation. For Dutch organizations, it is particularly interesting to have insight into what the 31 MEPs are doing in Brussels, because the coming five years will also see many new or adjusted laws on taxation, climate and consumer sectors. Public Matters is happy to think along with what will be important for you.

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