Author: Selwyn Manning

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 20-12-2023 | 07:00

As the Netherlands works towards its net-zero ambitions, we need more and more sustainable electricity. Offshore wind will become the largest source of sustainable energy for Europe. Significant steps have already been taken in this regard over the past 10 years. The 2013 Energy Agreement stipulated that the Netherlands would have 4.5 GW of offshore wind farms in operation by end 2023. This has been amply achieved with a capacity of 4.7 GW. We succeeded on time, within budget and with almost no subsidies. This is an important milestone for the Dutch and European wind industry.

Since 2018, five wind farm sites off the Dutch coast have been granted subsidy-free permits. The realisation phase, once the permits for the offshore wind farms have been awarded, has shortened considerably in recent years, falling from 7-10 years to 3-4 years. One of the pillars supporting this efficiency drive is the Dutch ‘one-stop-shop’ principle for offshore wind farm tenders. This means that an offshore wind farm project developer can rely on the central government for all information and permits.

2024: largest tender round in the Netherlands to date

The next offshore wind farm tenders will open at the end of February 2024. These concern the IJmuiden Ver Wind Farm Sites Alpha and Beta. IJmuiden Ver is the largest wind farm zone in the Netherlands. The Alpha and Beta sites combined account for 4 GW. The wind farms will be located more than 60 km from the Dutch coast, near IJmuiden. They are expected to be put into use in 2029 and 2030.

Next week, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy will publish the final Ministerial Orders (regulations) for the tenders and the final Wind Farm Site Decisions. The ministry is also publishing an amended ‘offshore wind energy implementation regulation’ to ensure that safety can be taken into account even more during the permit procedure. The tenders will use a so-called comparative test with an additional financial offer. This method was also used in the Hollandse Kust (west) tender. Ecology and integration of the electricity generated into the national grid are important aspects of the tenders; the Government wants to stimulate solution-oriented and innovative bids.

By end 2031, the Netherlands wants to achieve approximately 21 GW of installed offshore wind energy capacity.

Minister for Climate and Energy, Rob Jetten, said: “The North Sea will become the supplier of green electricity for Europe and an indispensable part of the sustainable energy system of the future. In recent years, the Netherlands has made great strides with nature-oriented and technical innovations. Costs have fallen and we have started working increasingly more efficiently. We can be proud of that. I am also pleased that we can now take an important step forward with the largest Dutch tender round to date.”

For an impression of 10 years of the ‘Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap’, see this film on windopzee.nl (Dutch).

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 14-12-2023 | 08:00

Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius:  “Online criminals abuse your good faith by posing as a well-known organisation. These criminals know that many people are less likely to recognise a fake message if they actually expect a similar message at such a time. Especially in the busy month of December. That’s why I say: ‘don’t let yourself be duped online!”

Too trusting

The majority of Dutch people (85%) occasionally receive a fake message via e-mail, SMS or WhatsApp. Half of these even once or several times a month. Although almost nine in 10 people (86%) say they check the sender if they doubt the trustworthiness of an online message, almost half (43%) pay less attention to it when a message from that alleged organisation is expected at that moment. And this is not without consequences, as those who pay less attention to checking a message are almost three times more likely to click on a fake link.

Infected, hacked or lost money

People often click on a fake link because the fake message seems credible or applicable to them at the time. Three in ten people sometimes click on such a link because they are expecting a package at that moment. The most common consequences of clicking on a fake link: an infected device (with a virus, malware or spyware) and financial loss. “Even if you are expecting a message from a company or government agency, it is important to stay alert and check the sender before clicking on a link in such a message,” says Frederiek Burlage, Police Cybercrime Specialist.

Don’t let yourself be duped online

The multi-year campaign by the Ministry of Justice and Security and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations urges people to carefully check the sender of online messages and when in doubt, click or swipe away. At laatjenietinterneppen.nl, people can find more information on how to recognise this kind of online deception and what to do about it.

About the survey

The survey was conducted in November 2023 by Verian (formerly Kantar Public) on behalf of the central government. The representative sample consists of 1,033 Dutch people aged 18 years and over.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 18-12-2023 | 19:45

This agreement was formed under the umbrella of the Pentalateral Energy Forum, chaired this year by The Netherlands. By 2040, the European electricity system is expected to be nearly decarbonized, considering the rapidly decreasing availability of emission allowances. With this agreement, the countries anticipate on this milestone by aiming to decarbonize their electricity sectors five years earlier, ensuring a smoother transition. Close collaboration and proceeding simultaneously also mitigates potential carbon leakage across the region.

Rob Jetten, climate and energy The Netherlands: “The electricity production of the pentalateral countries count for almost half of the production in the EU. So it is clear that decarbonizing our electricity systems swiftly will significantly decrease carbon emissions in Europe. The countries have a strongly interconnected electricity system, and can benefit from offshore potential in some areas and storage in other areas. I am confident in our collective capabilities, we are well on our way with extensive offshore wind energy plans, solar power, hydropower, hydrogen and other energy sources to power our region.”

Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy: “With all of the energy legislation under the European Green Deal agreed, today’s announcement is an important step to implement our European ambitions to transition our energy system. A decarbonized electricity system will also increase energy security, and help reduce emissions in transport, industry and buildings through electrification and increased energy efficiency. Close collaboration between the Members of the Pentalateral Energy Forum will also be crucial to develop energy storage and integrate the rapid expansion of renewables across the region, including through the production of renewable hydrogen.”

The collaboration will help make the decarbonization of the national electricity systems more feasible, mostly because of the possibility for joint planning of infrastructure, and because of the consequential cost efficiencies and knowledge-sharing. The key challenges are not only to ensure enough decarbonized electricity is produced, but also to ensure smooth transport and trade of energy across the region and to have sufficient energy storage. The future electricity system requires ample flexibility to accommodate for the variety of green energy sources and peak demand and eventually ensure that coal and gas-powered plants are no longer required.

The Pentalateral Energy Forum was formed in 2005 to integrate the electricity markets across the participating countries. The integration has had significant success over the years, yielding benefits for both consumers and producers of electricity and helping to integrate renewable electricity in the grid. It has also allowed for increased security of supply, and joint crisis preparations, which were very beneficial during the 2022 energy crisis. The Forum also played a groundbreaking role in the field of hydrogen, being among the first to call for an internal market for hydrogen.  Each year the Forum is chaired by the energy minister of one of the participating countries. The Netherlands will pass the baton to Belgium for the 2024 presidency.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 14-12-2023 | 19:28

About the Human Rights Tulip

The Human Rights Tulip is an annual award presented by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a human rights defender to support them in their work advancing, protecting and raising awareness about human rights around the world.

The winner of the Human Rights Tulip receives a bronze tulip and money that they can use to expand their human rights work in order to reach more people, in more places.

In her speech, Ms Bruins Slot said: ‘Human rights are among the most important resources we have at our disposal to tackle the major problems of our time, such as war, poverty and climate change. But without action, human rights are no more than words, just some sentences from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The nominees for the Human Rights Tulip understand this at a profound level. Through their tireless efforts, these human rights defenders make a real difference for people and society.’

Hülya Gülbahar’s human rights work

‘For more than 40 years,’ Ms Bruins Slot said, ‘Hülya Gülbahar has been defending women’s rights and fighting injustice in Türkiye. She does so using her extensive legal expertise and through her influential network, comprised primarily of women, which is too extensive to ignore. And she has been very successful at it. It’s thanks to people like Hülya that the call for human rights is heard. She deserves our support.’

Other finalists

The two other finalists for the 2023 Human Rights Tulip were:

• Julienne Baseke is a journalist and human rights defender who fights for women’s rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As a journalist, Ms Baseke founded the South Kivu Women’s Media Association (AFEM), which aims to enhance women’s visibility and participation in the DRC media.
• Claudelice dos Santos is a human rights and environmental activist in the Amazon region. She is the founder of the Zé Claudio e Maria Institute, whose shelter and protection house provides a safe haven for indigenous land, environmental and human rights defenders.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 11-12-2023 | 09:00

To this end, Justice and Security Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius today put into (internet) consultation a bill to increase the maximum sentences on hard drug offences. Stocking hard drugs presently carries a maximum prison sentence of 6 years. The bill changes that to a maximum prison sentence of 8 years. For deliberate trafficking and production of hard drugs, the maximum prison sentence increases from 8 to 12 years, for importing and exporting hard drugs from 12 to 16 years and for committing preparatory acts for hard drugs offences from 6 to 8 years.

“Penalties for hard drug offences have remained virtually unchanged in recent times. Meanwhile, the Netherlands has developed into a major producer of synthetic drugs and transit country of hard drugs. This has a pull effect on internationally operating crime and puts pressure on our national security. These are criminals for whom extortion, intimidation and murder are part of the business model. Hard drugs involve big money and criminal gangs will do anything to take their illegal trade further. By updating the maximum penalty for hard drugs, we will send a strong signal that this type of crime will not be tolerated and strong action will be taken,” says Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius.

According to Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, punishment is the final piece in tackling organised crime. This government is investing heavily in preventing young people from being recruited and our economic infrastructure from being abused by criminals. Investigative services are dealing hard blows in disrupting and breaking up criminal networks thanks to cracking encrypted communication services, such as EncroChat, SkyECC and Exclu.

At the same time, it can be seen that in cases against the most severe category of drug criminals, the public prosecution service’s sentencing demands are now at the upper end of the legal maximum prison sentences. Courts also impose very high sentences in such cases, sometimes up to the legal maximum. Usually, those accused of serious drug offences are also on trial for other offences, such as participation in a criminal organisation, threats, possession of automatic firearms and money laundering. The maximum sentences for these types of related offences in organised crime have already been increased over the years.

By now also raising the maximum sentence for hard drug offences, more room and flexibility will be given to determine what sentence or sentence demand is appropriate given the circumstances of specific cases. Also, by increasing the maximum sentences for hard drug offences, the Netherlands will be more in line with surrounding countries when it comes to the criminal law approach to serious drug crime, often committed in the context of a criminal organisation.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 13-12-2023 | 16:32

On 19 September, Azerbaijan launched offensive operations against the ethnically Armenian enclave Nagorno-Karabakh. As a result, more than 100,000 people were forced to flee their homes, nearly all of whom found refuge in Armenia. Those from Nagorno-Karabakh taken in represent about 3% of the Armenian population.

The sudden population increase has put a great deal of pressure on the country’s social services, labour market and overall economy. Taking in so many people also entails considerable costs. To help Armenia in this regard, the Netherlands is contributing €10 million to the Global Concessional Financing Facility.

Lower interest rates and longer repayment periods

The Global Concessional Financing Facility was established in 2016 to support countries taking in large numbers of refugees. It offers middle-income countries the opportunity to borrow from multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, on concessional terms. For example, at lower interest rates and with longer repayment periods. Middle-income countries usually do not have access to this type of concessional financing from multilateral development banks, which tends to be reserved for the poorest nations.

The Global Concessional Financing Facility is hosted by the World Bank and uses contributions from Supporting Countries, such as the Netherlands, Canada and Denmark. Such contributions enable countries to borrow more for development projects in this area.

Education, healthcare and shelter

Since its establishment, the GCFF has provided loans for development projects in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova and, in the near future, will be funding projects in Armenia. Armenia plans to use this funding to strengthen education and healthcare, and to provide shelter and safety to those who need it.

Shelter and safety in the region

The Netherlands is a major Supporting Country of the Global Concessional Financing Facility and, as of this week, is also co-chair of the GCFF. For the Netherlands it is important that people fleeing their homes are treated humanely and provided with shelter and safety in the region. In contrast to long-term stays in refugee camps, this allows them the opportunity to rebuild their lives until they are able to return to their homes. This also limits the likelihood that refugees will feel compelled to flee to destinations farther away, such as in Europe.

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its annual risk assessment of the European banking system. The Report is accompanied by the publication of the 2023 EU-wide transparency exercise, which provides detailed information, in a comparable and accessible format, for 123 banks from 26 countries across the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA).

Highlights of the EBA risk assessment:

• The EU banking sector has proven to be resilient in the aftermath of the banking turmoil in March.
• Capitalisation remains high with an average common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio at its highest reported point (16%). Underlying profitability has supported banks’ payouts.
• Elevated interest rate levels have so far supported widening interest margins, but this might have reached its turning point.
• Asset quality remains robust, yet subdued economic growth and elevated interest rate levels create pockets of risks.
• Liquidity remains high but it started normalising from its pandemic highest levels.
• Market funding costs have increased in line with interest rates, yet deposits rates have remained comparatively low but might rise going forward.

	CET1 ratio (transitional)	CET1 ratio (fully loaded)	Leverage ratio	Liquidity coverage ratio	NPL ratio	Share of Stage 2 loans	RoE
Jun-23	16%	15.9%	5.7%	160.9%	1.8%	9.1%	11%
Jun-22	15.2%	15%	5.3%	164.9%	1.8%	9.5%	7.9%

Notes to editors

The transparency exercise is part of the EBA’s ongoing efforts to foster transparency and market discipline in the EU financial market, and complements banks’ own Pillar 3 disclosures, as laid down in the EU Capital Requirements Directive (CRD). Along with the dataset (over 1.2 million data points, with on average more than 10,000 data points per bank), the EBA also provides a wide range of interactive tools that allow users to compare and visualise data across time and on a country and a bank-by-bank level.

The exercise results are based on the supervisory data submitted to the EBA via the European Centralised Infrastructure of Data (EUCLID) platform. This platform has been developed by the EBA to gather and analyse regulatory data from a wide range of financial institutions. It covers supervisory, resolution, remuneration and payments data. Thanks to EUCLID, the public will be able to gain a wider access to EU banking and financial data. 

Source: European Banking Authority

This is the first EBA’s peer review focussing on conduct and consumer protection issues. The review assessed conduct supervision of seven competent authorities and examined whether the steps they have taken effectively ensure that consumers in payment difficulties benefit from reasonable forbearance by creditors, taking into account the EBA Guidelines on arrears and foreclosures (EBA/GL/2015/12) and its Opinion on good practices for mortgage creditworthiness assessments and arrears and foreclosure. Peer reviews aim to strengthen consistency and effectiveness in supervisory outcomes across the EU and so do not look at the level of compliance by financial institutions, such as MCD creditors. National supervision of credit servicers was also outside the scope of this peer review. The latter are not subject to MCD requirements but will have to comply with  the Credit Servicers Directive from 30 December 2023.

Overall, the EBA found that the competent authorities under review have implemented the Guidelines in their entirety. However, the review identified some differences, including with regard to:

• the organisational set-up for the supervision of this area, with some competent authorities allocating significant resources exclusively to conduct, while others focus primarily on prudential supervision;
• the level of engagement with supervised MCD creditors to ensure their reasonable exercise of forbearance measures, with some competent authorities implementing different conduct supervisory tools and regular and/or ad-hoc communication channels, while others having a more limited intrusiveness;
• the effectiveness of procedures and/or policies to ensure preparedness from a conduct perspective for dealing with an increase in arrears or foreclosures as a result of changing economic conditions and/or market developments, with some competent authorities adopting a close engagement with MCD creditors, while others implementing a different level of supervisory intensity.

The EBA set out follow-up measures which are applicable to all competent authorities and not just those that were reviewed (unless stated otherwise), and which it will review in two years’ time. While maintaining effective prudential supervision such as in the area of management of non-performing exposures, such improvements in conduct supervision can and should be implemented. The report also sets out some follow-up measures, which might benefit all competent authorities, in particular:

• the adoption of policies clearly indicating internal unit responsibilities, so to facilitate the cooperation and information sharing among different teams involved in the supervision of creditors’ treatment of mortgage borrowers in arrears;
• the establishment of formal written procedures as regards the supervision of this area, including in relation to competent authorities’ engagement with MCD creditors, that foresee a margin of flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances;
•  the enhancing supervision of MCD creditors’ preparedness for dealing with potential arrears related to market conditions by further engaging with them and providing guidance in what supervisory expectations are from Article 28 of the MCD.

Legal basis and background

Article 30 of the EBA Regulation requires the EBA to periodically conduct peer reviews of some or all of the activities of competent authorities within its remit, to further strengthen consistency and effectiveness in supervisory outcomes. Peer reviews identify follow-up measures to achieve this, together with best practices seen in competent authorities. After two years, the EBA is required to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of actions taken by competent authorities in response to the follow-up measures.

The peer review has been performed by an ad hoc Peer Review Committee made up of EBA and competent authorities’ staff in accordance with the EBA peer review work plan for 2023-2024 and following the process in Article 30 of the EBA Regulation and EBA peer review methodology.

The exercise covered the competent authorities from seven EU Member States (Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovakia). Six competent authorities were selected on the basis of objective criteria that indicate the relevance of the requirements in Article 28 of the MCD and the EBA Guidelines on arrears and foreclosure in a given Member State. These criteria were supplemented by considerations aimed at ensuring a fair representation of different types of real estate markets, geographies, jurisdiction sizes, cultures, and socio-economic policies, all of which shape and have shaped each national mortgage market. Two of the CAs under review volunteered to participate in the peer review, with one being already under the scope for application of the objective criteria.

The peer review assessed the seven competent authorities’ supervisory practices in the supervision of creditors’ treatment of mortgage borrowers in arrears and initiating of foreclosure proceedings over a maximum of six-year period from 21 March 2016.

Source: European Banking Authority

The three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – the ESAs) today published a Report on innovation facilitators, a term encompassing innovation hubs and regulatory sandboxes. The Report identifies a number of benefits and challenges relating to the operation and design of such innovation facilitators and presents recommendations and considerations towards national competent authorities (NCAs), the ESAs and the European Commission to further enhance the role and efficiency of innovation facilitators in the financial sector across the European Economic Area (EEA).

Since the last Report in 2019, innovation hubs in the EEA have undergone improvements in their operations while maintaining their focus on enhancing firms’ understanding of the regulation and supervisory expectations. Regulatory sandboxes have offered the FinTech sector a safe environment to test their business ideas and allowed NCAs to stay abreast of emerging innovations in the financial sector and to better identify cases where a reassessment of regulatory perimeters may be needed.

To further improve the operation of innovation facilitators and to enhance the experience for participating firms, the NCAs are invited to:

• improve their understanding of the concerns and interests of participating firms;
• broaden the scope of innovations captured, including at the cross-sectoral level;
• ensure an effective collaboration among NCAs;
• continuously evaluate the functioning of innovation hubs and regulatory sandboxes.

Through the European Forum for Innovation Facilitators (EFIF) framework, the ESAs can provide recommendations for future EU-wide initiatives that focus on experimentation. To improve the functioning of this framework the ESAs should:

• re-evaluate the procedural framework for cross-border testing established by the EFIF in 2021, 
• formalise the EFIF’s process to raise co-legislators’ attention to issues identified via innovation hubs or regulatory sandboxes.

Finally, the ESAs propose that the European Commission undertake a comprehensive reflection on the EU-wide strategy to support financial innovation and the operation of innovation facilitators, in particular regulatory sandboxes.

Background

The EFIF provides a platform for supervisors to regularly share experiences from their engagement with firms through innovation facilitators, to exchange technological expertise, and to reach common views on the regulatory treatment of innovative products, services and business models.

The EFIF was established following the 2019 Joint ESAs report on regulatory sandboxes and innovation hubs which identified the need for greater coordination and cooperation between innovation facilitators to support the scaling up of FinTech across the EU single market. Members of the EFIF include representatives of each innovation hub and regulatory sandbox established by national and European supervisors within the EEA. The EFIF unites representatives from all 30 countries in the EEA, covering the banking/payments, insurance and securities/markets sectors.

The Report published today updates the findings of the 2019 Joint ESAs Report on the same topic by taking stock of innovative developments that take place within innovation facilitators in EEA financial markets, analysing the activities of existing innovation facilitators, and identifying related challenges and limitations.

More information about the EFIF can be found here.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 10-12-2023 | 12:15

However, without robust standards and safeguards, the use of carbon credits can undermine climate action and cause environmental or social harm. Low prices, a lack of transparency and the absence of clear guidance, currently risk delaying the urgent near-term mitigation that the market could in fact provide.

That’s why a group of European countries today propose joint recommendations to improve the integrity of the voluntary carbon market. These recommendations aim to ensure full transparency, high-quality credits and credible claims. They are designed to help companies make choices in line with Paris. They can be adopted immediately by the market – in the long run they serve as input for frameworks at the EU-level. The group consists of the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Finland, Belgium and Austria.

The recommendations are to:

1.  Map direct and indirect emissions and draw up a climate plan with clear emission reduction targets in line with Paris.
2. Prioritize emission reductions in own organization and value chains, before looking at the use of carbon certificates.
3. Formulate clear claims in response to the use of carbon certificates while providing sufficient details to avoid misleading. And indicate whether the certificates are used to meet own climate goals (offset claim) or contribute to meeting climate goals in the host country (contribution claim), to avoid double claiming.
4. Buy certificates of high quality that represent real, additional and permanent mitigation.
5. Pay attention to the situation in the host country and how the purchase of carbon certificates there contributes to sustainable development goals.
6. Report and provide transparency on the use of carbon certificates.

Minister of Climate and Energy Rob Jetten: “Greenwashing is detrimental for trust in companies, the functioning of markets and for the climate. This is why today we are proposing a framework to improve the integrity of voluntary carbon markets. Our concrete recommendations give guidance to the market and direction to further EU discussions.”

H.E. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for the Energy Transition, France
“Following the launch, with Spain and the Commission, of the “Call to action for Paris aligned Carbon Markets” at the Finance Summit organised in Paris last June, today’s Joint Statement is an important milestone towards a higher level of integrity in carbon markets. Its focus on the demand-side claims is innovative and very much needed to bring trust in the carbon markets.”

H.E. Teresa Ribera, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Spain
“Voluntary Carbon Markets can and must play an important complementary role in the fight against Climate Change. With these recommendations we are providing the right direction to the private sector to align their efforts with the long term goals of the Paris Agreement. The EU is committed to provide clear guidelines for VCM and is currently working on a set of regulations that help to build trust and give long-term signals to the private sector.”

H.E. Robert Habeck, Federal Minister Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Germany
“In order to mobilize the urgently needed investments for a transformation in line with the Paris Agreements goal of keeping 1,5 within reach, we need to establish a carbon market that excludes funding for acitivities that are not aligned with this goal and encourage companies for investments which serve the 1,5-degree pathway. We can‘t afford fictitious transactions. The joint statement on Voluntary Carbon Market gives guidance for corporates on the use of carbon credits.  In a time of high uncertainty its purpose is to boost integrity both on supply and demand side of the voluntary carbon market by ensuring that climate actions contribute to ambition raising and transformational change.”

H.E. Kai Mykkänen, Minister of Climate and the Environment, Finland
“The voluntary carbon market has potential to significantly contribute to Paris Agreement’s goals and provide much-needed finance for global decarbonisation. High environmental integrity of units and true, transparent and reliable claims made on the basis of their use are imperative to unlock this potential. We are happy to have worked with the Netherlands to develop this additional guidance. We hope this guidance increases trust in high-integrity voluntary carbon markets and offers useful tools for market practitioners.”

H.E. Leonore Gewessler, Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, Austria
“The private sector plays a vital role on our way to climate neutrality – voluntary carbon markets can support and advance this transition. For them to be reliable and useful we need clear standards and common rules, to avoid greenwashing. This is what we are pushing for together.”