ANPRob Jetten (D66)
D66 party leader Rob Jetten is critical of fellow party members who start working in the fossil energy sector during or after their political job. “I don’t understand why people choose these types of jobs,” he says News hour. “I would mainly do something different.”
Several D66 members have recently been active for Element NL, the interest group of oil and gas companies. For example, Menno Snel, former D66 State Secretary for Finance, was chairman until recently.
From that position he advocated stopping taxes for gas companies. Snel is also chairman of the D66 scientific bureau.
Jetten is critical of these types of career choices. “Individuals can decide for themselves where they work. But I understand that this raises your eyebrows. It seems very boring to me to work for such a trade association after a great political career. I hope that if you already work there, you will have everything is doing to green it from within.”
He says about Snel’s double role: “You have to ensure that it remains well separated.”
Lobby register
Furthermore, current cabinet members should be “completely public” about contacts with lobby and interest groups, Jetten believes. But it is precisely this that the Netherlands has recently been addressed by the European anti-corruption watchdog Greco. He notes that the Netherlands is not doing enough to increase transparency when it comes to the influence of lobbyists on government policy.
‘Greco believes that a lobby register is of added value’
The Netherlands still does not have a lobby register, despite an adopted parliamentary motion requesting one in 2021. In such a register, politicians make public which lobbyists they speak to.
D66 initially voted in favor of that motion. But the cabinet – in which D66 participated – subsequently postponed the introduction of the register. The party also voted against when MPs Pieter Omtzigt and Laurens Dassen themselves decided to come up with a plan. Jetten now says he is a “very strong supporter” of the register.
Lacquered corona documents
D66, together with GroenLinks, did manage to introduce the Open Government Act (WOO), an innovation of the WOB. The new law should give citizens and journalists easier access to government documents. In addition, a special advisory board (ACOI) was established that, among other things, provides advice if citizens and the government come into conflict about information that is not released.
But the previous cabinet, which included D66 ministers, allowed the Ministry of Health to set aside the WOO during the corona crisis. No more documents were provided or much too late. According to Jetten, this was an exception. “Thousands of civil servants spend a lot of time on this. They cannot keep up at the ministry because there are so many requests for information.”
The ACOI condemned the actions of healthcare minister Ernst Kuipers (D66). But he subsequently ignored that advice.
The provision of information from the government is still not in order, say two investigative journalists from Follow the Money:
‘The Ministry of Kaag is known for its slow handling of WOO requests’
Earlier this year, MP Omtzigt requested the government in a motion to comply with court rulings on following up on WOO requests. D66 voted against.
Jetten says he is not aware of that motion, but believes that “ministers and ministries should adhere to it if the judge reprimands you”. He advocates a new law that goes further than the WOO. “My ideal world would be that all government information is available as standard.”
Watch the entire interview with Jetten in Nieuwsuur below:
In conversation with D66 party leader Rob Jetten
2023-11-13 22:42:04
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