European elections 2024: Time for new agricultural policy?
Also on April 16, 2024, hundreds of Dutch farmers marched to Brussels to protest the European Commission's strict fattening rules. Not only Dutch farmers are dissatisfied with the European agricultural policy. Farmers in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Poland and Romania are also taking to the streets to speak out against this policy. After [...]
An elongated formation: are we back to square one?
It took one month: the fastest formation of the Drees cabinet in 1948. The 31 days of this cabinet formation are anno 2024 a utopia. Cabinet Rutte III and Rutte IV, along with Cabinet Van Agt I in 1977, are in the top three slowest formations in Dutch history. Although the formation process since November 2023 is now [...]
New round, new opportunities: Dubai climate summit kicks off
The world is currently heading for double the global warming agreed upon in Paris in 2015. Back then, it was agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. A new edition of the Emission Gap Report shows that the world is heading for 3 degrees of warming. At previous climate conferences [...]
Netherlands must make cuts again, but climate train steams on
The Spring Memorandum is in the House of Representatives and that means that the discussion about the national debt and the government's spending is going to be held again. A change of course is underway, because after years of spending, the Netherlands is forced to make cuts. Indeed, the cabinet is facing a number of substantial setbacks. For example, it supports [...]
From the IBO Climate menu to a front-loaded Spring Note
Indeed, the Climate and Energy Outlook (KEV) 2022, released on Nov. 1 of last year, showed that the existing government plans for CO2 reduction do not yet add up to the desired goal of 55% reduction compared to 1990. This KEV is published every year to give just that insight into the CO2 reduction range of the proposed [...]
Over right, or over left? The hot topics of Provincial Council elections 2023
You may remember the previous state elections in 2019. Four years ago, Forum for Democracy became the largest in the Netherlands with 12 seats in the Senate. At first glance, this political shift seemed to have a major impact on relations in political The Hague and Cabinet Rutte III. Of that [...]