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Legislation must be introduced that makes it possible to suspend or speed up objection procedures or the process of going to the Council of State, in order to be able to build faster. This works than the emergency legislation to enforce the reception of refugees.
That says a ‘leading group’ of large Dutch municipalities within the umbrella organization VNG, which advises the cabinet on solutions to the refugee crisis. Housing plans can be implemented more quickly with these interventions. By temporarily cutting participation and bureaucracy, municipalities will have more elbow room to help home-seekers and refugees with temporary and flexible housing.
The leading group includes mayor of The Hague Jan van Zanen, also chairman of the VNG, Hubert Bruls, mayor of Nijmegen and chairman of the Security Council and alderman Boaz Adank van Breda.
According to Adank, legislation similar to the Crisis and Recovery Act from 2010, which was introduced to get the Netherlands out of the financial crisis, should be introduced as soon as possible.
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Also read the entire interview with Boaz Adank: ‘Reception of refugees under duress is not accepted’
Relieve workload
State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum and Migration, VVD) promised the House of Representatives last week to come up with proposals for emergency legislation. This could force municipalities to receive refugees. According to Adank, there is no support for this. “That is not accepted in society.”
The leading group also wants the cabinet to take measures to relieve the workload at municipalities. The reception of tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees costs so much official capacity that services to citizens across the board are under pressure. According to Adank, government and provincial officials could assist if necessary. Ministers should at their ministries Polish civil servants can establish: “They also do not have cellars full of redundant civil servants at ministries. But it can be said there: ‘you are exempted a few days a week’. You can arrange that.”
An additional advantage, according to Adank, is that “The Hague policymakers” then know what is happening in the country. “Because I have never encountered a government official in a reception center anywhere. While the water is up to our lips here.”
In addition to suspending consultation procedures and advisory rounds at the Council of State, the leading group is counting on more practical solutions from The Hague, instead of regulations that still need to be worked out in more detail “while we are with our feet in the clay.”
Interview Boaz Adank pg. 9
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of April 25, 2022
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