Funding of Political Parties

The Political Parties (Grants) Act came into force in the Netherlands in 1999. It provides for a grant system for political parties that are represented in the Dutch parliament. Some €15 million is provided under this grant system every year. The Dutch system differs from that in place in other European countries in that: 

• In the Netherlands, the grants per head of population are relatively low. The amount a political party receives depends in part on the number of paying members the party has. In other countries, only the number of seats in parliament or the number of votes is taken into account.
• The Netherlands is an exception in that the grant is determined in part by whether the party has a research institute and a youth organisation.
• The regulation of gifts and other private funding of political parties in the Netherlands is relatively lax. It is so lax that the Netherlands does not satisfy several recommendation made by the Council of Europe that the Netherlands has committed itself to. Few if any restrictions are placed, for example, on the source or amount of gifts. Furthermore, the recommendations on transparency have at best been implemented in the Netherlands to only to a limited extent, and there are no sanctions on political parties that break the rules.
• Under Dutch legislation, political parties must disclose in their financial statements gifts of €4,537.80 and higher that are not received from natural persons. This is a high threshold in relation to other countries.
  

GRECO (Group of States against corruption, of the Council of Europe) published a critical evaluation report on party funding in the Netherlands in 2008. It found that the Dutch public had inadequate access to information on the funding of political parties and supervision and sanctions were inadequate. The Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) said at the time that the government agreed with the criticism. In a subsequent report published in mid-2010, GRECO concluded that the progress made implementing the recommendations had been disappointing. A Bill that would eliminate some of the shortcomings in the current Political Parties (Grants) Act had been in preparation since 2006. It is still uncertain when the Minister of BZK will submit it to parliament. The House of Representatives has asked the minister to submit the Bill before 1 March 2011. It is also uncertain whether the Bill will eliminate all relevant shortcomings. To enhance the transparency of the funding of political parties, it is important that the new legislation implements the Council of Europe's recommendations on party funding.

The Minister of BZK responded to our report on 19 January 2011. The report gave him no cause for comment. He is currently reviewing the Bill that the previous government had prepared and intends to submit it to parliament as soon as possible.