Kutsal Yesilkagit on the recommendations of the Remkes Commission

25 January 2019

Urgent sociatal challenges such as global warming, international security and migration can not be solved by national parliaments. The House of Representatives loses control over problems that are being tackled at European level. The recommendations of the state commission are inadequate.

That is what Kutsal Yesilkagit, Professor of Public Administration at the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden University, and Mendeltje van Keulen, Lector at the Haagse Hogeschool, wrote in an opinion article in the NRC on Monday, January 21, 2019. The article is a reaction to the recent published final report Lage drempels, hoge dijken (Dutch) in which the Remkes commission makes recommendations for the strengthening of our parliamentary system with the aim of strengthening the House of Representatives as an empowered and influential people's representation. To this end, the House of Representatives needs parliamentary control and supervision of international policy.

ZBO's

Within and (especially) outside the EU, it is teeming with international cooperation and many of our nationally organised administrative committees (the so-called ZBOs, independent administrative bodies) work with international interest groups to draw up rules and policies. Therefore the question that rises is, how the Senate and the House of Representatives can keep track of policy and supervision in a world in which major social problems are no longer solved at national level. How should the parliament keep control as more and more independent international organisations shape European policy?

Read the full article Commissie- Remkes heeft geen oog voor Europa (Dutch) by Kutsal Yesilkagit of Monday 21 January 2019 on the website of the NRC.

Photography: Johan Remkes, Henriette Guest Fotografie