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Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten

VNG

Represent the interests of Dutch Municipalities in the Dutch and EU decision making processes; and in the EU, in the Council of Europe and at the UN.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Circular Economy Act

5 Nov 2025

The Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) supports the ambition of the European Commission to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy through a binding and practical legislative framework. Municipalities play a pivotal role in this transition as waste collectors, regulators, public procurers, and drivers of local circular initiatives. The VNG welcomes a Circular Economy Act (CEA) that can bring the necessary acceleration towards a fully circular economy by 2050. A strong and workable European framework can help municipalities translate circular economy policy into practice. Clear rules, access to reliable data, and fair financing are essential for municipalities and the EU to work together towards a future-proof, resilient, and competitive European economy.
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Meeting with Jan Ceyssens (Cabinet of Commissioner Jessika Roswall) and Bureau Brussel Vewin - Unie van Waterschappen and Huis van de Nederlandse Provincies

15 Oct 2025 · Address Pilot Event panel on Climate and Water Resilience

Response to Nature Restoration Law - Method for monitoring pollinator diversity and pollinator populations (delegated act)

16 Jul 2025

The Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) welcomes the good work that the Commission has accomplished with this initiative. The prescribed method in the regulation concurs with the method applied by (at least) some municipalities in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, we would like to raise attention to few points which might need to be adapted to make sure the regulation is better executable in practice: - Article 5, paragraph 7 stipulates that light traps shall be placed at least 50 meters removed from artificial light sources. This would be unrealistic for urban monitoring sites, where the presence of night-active moths is an important life source for bats that are present in these urban areas. As such, it would be a good idea to propose a derogation for this rule in these urban areas, to instead prescribe the use of more intense light sources that will attract moths regardless of the presence of other artificial light sources in the area. Moreover, in regard of this article, it is yet unclear to us why two light straps are required for the data collection of night-active moths as we also receive signals that some cases allow for sufficient data collection through one light strap. - Article 4, paragraph 1 stipulates that transect walks shall be undertaken separately for bees, hoverflies and butterflies, even though some municipalities do transect walks for bees and hoverflies at once. The current text makes it yet unclear why it is necessary to do this separately. - Regarding the amount of experts required for the transect walks and monitoring of bees and hoverflies we see a risk of achieving this, as labour market conditions are especially challenging in this field. A solution direction that can be considered promising is a combination of transect walks with the collection of eDNA, as this might also deliver useful, additional information.
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Meeting with Manuel Mateo Goyet (Acting Head of Unit Communications Networks, Content and Technology) and Huis van de Nederlandse Provincies

15 Jul 2025 · Exchange on future EU cloud policies and relevant cloud policy developments in the Netherlands

Response to Cloud and AI Development Act

2 Jul 2025

The VNG calls for a coordinated public sector effort to reduce reliance on non-European tech copmanies in cloud and AI. Important goals include strengthening digital autonomy, promoting European alternatives, boosting ICT knowledge, and supporting responsible AI innovation. Current digital dependencies threaten data sovereignty, continuity of public services, and democratic control. The call is not to abandon Big Tech entirely, but to mitigate risks and ensure future digital autonomy through collective procurement, open-source tools, and cloud-agnostic infrastructure.
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Meeting with Ingeborg Ter Laak (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Feb 2025 · ENVI

Meeting with Jeroen Lenaers (Member of the European Parliament)

28 Jan 2025 · Aldermen social affairs of Eindhoven, Rotterdam and Utrecht

Meeting with Sander Smit (Member of the European Parliament)

6 Nov 2024 · ENVI

Meeting with Daniel Mes (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

27 Sept 2022 · Speech on Green Deal going local

Meeting with Antonius Manders (Member of the European Parliament)

26 Sept 2022 · Prevention

Response to Declaration of Digital Principles

9 Jun 2021

The Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) enthusiastically supports the initiative of the Commission to create a set of principles that guide the European way for the digital society. It is of importance that digital principles form an integral part of the digital transition as well as in the use of digital technologies for the European Green Deal. We believe that the government has a key role to play in understanding and tackling issues relating to digitisation and public values and therefore in creating (in-)formal boundaries withing the current existing legal and societal frameworks that protect the rights and freedoms and citizens and creates the possibility for everyone to participate in our digital society, while also making it possible for government to use the new tools digitisation brings us in a societally acceptable way and for innovative (small) companies to find fertile (and protected) ground to start and flourish. These ambitions are visible in the different collective agendas of the Dutch municipalities, and are a central part of our discussion with our currently forming national government. To guide these developments and to function as ambassador we have a commission specifically tasked with the Information Society, with representatives from all kinds of municipalities. A recent subject is the rise of disinformation, the role of digital tools in propagating and monitoring it and the possible need for guidelines. For the practical development of principles and we make use of a network of energetic municipalities that work to translate their own practical experiences to guidelines and principles for use by all other municipalities. One way these ambitions have gotten form is by the creation of the Principles for a Digital Society (see attached). A set of rules that municipalities have created with ambitions and boundaries for the use of data in the public sphere, and subject of a discussion with Commissioner Vestager (3 February 2020). We suspect they are valuable input for European Digital Principles. When it comes to the roadmap our suggestions would be: • The roadmap refers to existing proposals, principles etc. on the national level. Our experience is that the closer you get to the local level, the more specific and interesting the principles get. For example the use sensoring for tracking of individuals in the public space outside of policing/safety, might be something municipalities simply ‘don’t want to have’. Therefore we suggest to pay specific attention to these local-level principles that exist or are being developed. • The creators of sets of principles deserve recognition for the work they have done, often in difficult circumstances with little organisational support. They are also key in the acceptance of national or higher-level principles. We suggest making sure they are giving due notice and/or credit in the development process of the principles (and perhaps in an addendum at the final product). • Our experience (also with our own Principles for Digital Society) is that writing principles down is not enough, but that they need to be a) often and actively communicated, b) need political support for implementation and c) be implemented in lower level documentation, regulation, standard procurement rules, etc. to actually have their impact. We advise using the consultation to learn which of these instruments works best and if a follow-up implementation track can be given form. • We fully support the importance of citizen consultation and public organisations in the development of the European Digital Principles. Our wish is to work closely together in the development of these European Principles and are interested in talking further about ways to offer our support.
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Meeting with Nicolas Schmit (Commissioner) and

15 Apr 2021 · Pact for skills roundtable with the retail sector.

Meeting with Thierry Breton (Commissioner) and EuroCommerce and

15 Apr 2021 · Skills roundtable with the retail sector

Meeting with Frans Timmermans (Executive Vice-President)

22 Feb 2021 · Exchange of views on the green transition, the role of local government and the possibilities of the recovery plan with a delegation of the Netherlands Municipalities (VNG)

Meeting with Diederik Samsom (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans)

27 Nov 2020 · Speech on the European Green Deal at the VNG Board Day

Meeting with Frans Timmermans (Executive Vice-President)

21 Jan 2020 · Green deal and role of local authorities in its implementation

Meeting with Marianne Thyssen (Commissioner)

6 Apr 2016 · EU Employment and Social Affairs priorities