Author: Selwyn Manning

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 24-06-2025 | 23:00

Meeting between defence ministers and industry

The NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum also took place today. Ministers, experts and business leaders from NATO countries came together to discuss how the defence industry can quickly be scaled up and strengthened. The goal is a stronger, sustainable and future-proof defence industry.

Meeting between NATO, EU and Ukraine

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and the EU and Ukraine met for talks in The Hague.

President Zelenskyy visits House of Representatives and Prime Minister

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the House of Representatives, where he addressed members of parliament. In the morning, he had a special meeting with Prime Minister Dick Schoof at the Catshuis. This visit was not part of the official summit programme.

Royal dinner at Huis ten Bosch Palace

On Tuesday evening, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima hosted heads of state and government from NATO countries for an informal dinner. Leaders from Australia, New Zealand and Ukraine were also present, as was South Korea’s national security director and the presidents of the European Commission and the European Council.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 23-06-2025 | 17:12

The King walked the same route that the NATO leaders will take: through the VIP entrance, past the place where the media will be addressed (the ‘doorstep’) and to the leaders lounge. He also visited the conference hall where on Wednesday 25 June the meeting of the North Atlantic Council will take place.

The King also met with members of the Summit organisation team and spoke with volunteers from the accreditation and registration centre.

More information on the 2025 NATO Summit can be found at Government.nl/nato2025.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 23-06-2025 | 14:11

Growing awareness about NATO

Dylan Ahern, from De Kiesmannen, has noticed an increase in awareness about NATO since the start of their programme in April:
‘What stands out is that a lot of young people support strengthening our armed forces. They follow the news with a critical eye and ask questions. The conversation about freedom and security is more relevant than ever.’

The closing programme marks the end of a series of meetings across the country. The 2025 NATO Summit will take place in The Hague on 24 and 25 June.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 18-06-2025 | 17:00

Back in February this year, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Eppo Bruins, announced his decision to return the Benin Bronzes from the Dutch State Collection. The return is unconditional, recognising that the objects were looted during the British attack on Benin City in 1897, and should have never ended up in the Netherlands. On 19 February, Minister Bruins and the Director-General of the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), Olugbile Holloway, signed the transfer agreements at the Wereldmuseum in Leiden, the Netherlands, where the objects were previously displayed.

This week, the Bronzes’ journey home will conclude with an official handover ceremony at the National Museum in Lagos, in the presence of the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy Hannatu Musa Musawa, the Ambassador for International Cultural Cooperation of the Netherlands Dewi van de Weerd, the DG of the NCMM, the directors of the Wereldmuseum and other officials.

The Nigerian government will decide how and where the artifacts will be displayed. They will initially be stored in the new NCMM Oba Ovonramwen storage facility at the National Museum in Benin City.

The Dutch restitution is the largest physical return of Benin artifacts to Nigeria to date. DG Holloway of the NCMM: “The symbolism of this occasion cannot be overemphasised and what it means for the pride and dignity of not just the Benin people, but the whole of Nigeria. We assure the rest of the world that these objects will be cared for with the utmost attention to detail and displayed in all their glory. We thank the Netherlands for the good example set and look forward to forging even greater ties between our two nations through cultural diplomacy.”

The Netherlands and Nigeria have worked closely together to realise this historic restitution. Dutch Ambassador for International Cultural Cooperation, Dewi van de Weerd: “We congratulate Nigeria on their persistent advocacy for the return of the Benin Bronzes. We hope that this restitution is not the final chapter, but the foundation for further cooperation between Dutch and Nigerian museums.”

Prior to the ceremony, the Netherlands and Nigeria will jointly convene an expert workshop on digital heritage, which will bring together experts from both countries and the wider West African region. In commemoration of the handover, young contemporary artists from Benin City have developed an exhibition on “Reclaiming heritage: new narratives”, which is on display in the National Museum in Lagos.

The Dutch restitution follows the recommendation of the independent Colonial Collections Committee, based on extensive provenance research, and is in line with the Dutch policy on the restitution of objects from a colonial context. Of the 119 objects being returned, 113 of the objects were part of the Dutch State Collection, while the remaining 6 are given back by the Municipality of Rotterdam. 4 items will remain on display in the Wereldmuseum on a loan agreement.

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published a report, in which it reviewed the standardised terms for the most common services related to payment accounts, as mandated by the Payment Accounts Directive (PAD). These standardised terms, which the EBA had issued in 2018, aim at making it easier for consumers to make informed choices by being able to compare payment accounts fees and offers, including on a cross-border basis. The review finds that the standardised terms remain fit-for-purpose across the European Union.

The standardised terms are set out in Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) developed by the EBA in line with the requirements in the PAD. The EBA is required to regularly review those standardised terms. The EBA carried out its review in the first half of 2025 using a methodology that involved assessing recent EU payments laws, collecting information from National Competent Authorities (NCAs), consulting with relevant stakeholders such as the EBA Banking Stakeholder Group (BSG), and analysing internal data from recently published EBA reports.

The findings of the review indicate that the current list of standardised terms remains suitable and does not require immediate changes. In the review process, the EBA acknowledged that there would be potential benefit for the standardised terms to be amended to include instant credit transfers, due to their increasing prevalence following the implementation of the Instant Payment Regulation (IPR). However, the EBA is of the opinion that the benefit is outweighed by the costs involved, for NCAs and for the industry as a result of the need to make available amended disclosure documents to all of their customers and NCAs. The EBA, therefore, concluded not to amend the RTS and instead to revisit the findings in four years’ time or when significant other market or legislative developments occur to ensure the terminology remains relevant and effective.

Background and legal basis

Article 3(4) of the Payment Accounts Directive (PAD) mandates the EBA to draft RTS setting out the Union standardised terminology for those services that are common to at least a majority of Member States. Article 3(6) of the PAD requires the EBA to review and, where necessary, update the standardised terminology.

The PAD mandates the EBA to regularly review if the standardised terminology in the RTS remains fit-for-purpose and provides clarity and consistency for consumers and stakeholders.

The RTS adopted by the European Commission as a Delegated Regulation are available here.

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today launched a public consultation on draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) specifying the list of minimum information to be provided to the relevant competent authority at the time of the notification of the proposed acquisition of qualifying holdings in a credit institution. These RTS aim at harmonising the minimum content of the notification to the competent authority of the target credit institution with a view to supporting a harmonised prudential assessment of the proposed acquisition against the five assessment criteria set out in the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD). The consultation runs until 18 September 2025.

The draft RTS require information on the proposed acquirer’s identity, reputation and financial soundness. To support the assessment of the sound and prudent management of the target credit institution, the proposed acquirer is requested to submit a business plan, with more specific information in case of control acquisition. Information on the legitimate origin of the sources of funding is requested, among others, to assess suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing risk.

To reflect proportionality concerns and to support efficient supervisory practices, these RTS envisage exemptions from the submission of information already in possession of the competent authority. Reduced information is also requested in specific acquisition structures where the indirect proposed acquirer is expected to exercise negligible influence (if any) on the target credit institution.

Consultation process

Responses to the consultations can be sent to the EBA by clicking on the “send your comments” button on the consultation page.

A public hearing will take place via conference call on Tuesday 15 July from 14:00-16:00 CET. The deadline for registration is 11 July at 16:00 CET.

All contributions received will be published after the consultation closes, unless requested otherwise. The deadline for the submission of comments is 18 September 2025.

Legal basis and background

Article 23(6) of Directive 2013/36/EU, as amended by Directive (EU) 2024/1619 (CRDVI), mandates the EBA to develop RTS to set out the list of minimum information to be included in the notification submitted by the proposed acquirer of qualifying holdings to the competent authority of the target credit institution prior to the proposed acquisition.

Source: Government of the Netherlands

News item | 17-06-2025 | 10:00

Pre-Summit Press Conference by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

On Monday 23 June, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will hold a press conference at the World Forum in The Hague, ahead of the NATO Summit.

NATO Public Forum

On both days of the summit (24 and 25 June), interested parties can follow the NATO Public Forum online. During this public event, heads of state and government, ministers, experts, opinion leaders, young people and academics will discuss current issues relating to peace and security. The all-day programme can be followed via NATO Public Forum Live.

NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum

The NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum will take place on Tuesday 24 June. Defence ministers, experts and representatives of the defence industry in NATO countries will come together to discuss innovation, cooperation and ways of strengthening the industry.

Official Meetings

Two sessions will be held in the World Forum at the same time. The foreign ministers will meet for a working dinner of the NATO-Ukraine Council. And the defence ministers will meet for a working dinner of the North Atlantic Council. A reception for all ministers will be held earlier the same evening.

Royal Dinner

On the evening of Tuesday 24 June, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima will host an informal dinner for the heads of state and government of the NATO countries. The prime ministers of Australia, Japan and New Zealand, the presidents of South Korea and Ukraine, and the presidents of the European Council and European Commission are also invited to attend.

North Atlantic Council

On Wednesday 25 June, the main focus will be on the meeting of the North Atlantic Council, at which theheads of state and government will discuss the most important decisions facing the alliance. After the meeting NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and representatives of the Dutch government and other NATO allies will hold press conferences. Over the course of both days various countries will engage in bilateral talks.

Programme at Government.nl/nato2025

The programme for the NATO summit and all side events will be made available at government.nl/nato2025. Check the NATO, NATO Public Forum and NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum websites regularly for the latest information, as the programme is subject to change.

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published three final draft technical standards that are crucial for the implementation of the EU Banking Package and will allow supervisors to monitor institutions’ compliance, thus fostering consistent and enhanced supervision.

In particular, the EBA is publishing the following Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) and Implementing Technical Standards (ITS):

• RTS concerning the calculation and adjustments of the Business Indicator (BI), which is central to the standardised and harmonised application of the operational risk capital requirements.
• ITS on the mapping to FINREP, which will ensure consistency and reduce implementation, administrative and operational costs.
• Amending ITS on operational risk reporting, which will keep the supervisory reporting framework relevant, meaningful and aligned with the amended regulation.

The EBA has refined the BI components, incorporating updates to accounting standards, detailed breakdowns of operational risk impacts and exclusions, as well as further clarifications on the approaches for calculating the financial component. These changes ensure comprehensive and accurate representation of operational risk in banks’ financial statements.

When an institution undergoes a merger or acquisition, the final RTS mandate the use of actual three-year historical data or provide alternative methodologies if this is not feasible. For disposals, the final RTS outline conditions for excluding BI items related to disposed entities, while a materiality threshold for disposals is introduced, allowing adjustments without supervisory permission for minor disposals. This ensures clarity for institutions with frequent, low-impact disposals.

The standard items for each component of the BI were matched to their respective reporting cells in FINREP, with the outcome being presented in the final ITS on BI mapping.

The final report on supervisory reporting introduces amendments to the operational risk reporting framework, aimed at assessing compliance with operational risk own funds requirements. It enhances existing reporting requirements by requesting additional details on the calculation of business indicator components. This ensures that supervisory authorities have access to essential data to fulfill their mandates, while also considering the effort required by institutions to meet these data requirements.

Legal basis and background

These mandates are part of the Phase 2 of the EBA roadmap on the implementation of the EU Banking Package.

Article 314(9)(a) and (b) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (Capital Requirements Regulation, CRR), mandates the EBA to develop draft RTS to further specify the components of the BI by developing a list of items and the elements to be excluded from the BI, respectively. Article 314(10) of the CRR, mandates the EBA to develop draft ITS to provide the mapping of the items of the BI to the corresponding reporting cells in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/451 (FINREP). Article 315(3) of the CRR3 mandates the EBA to draft RTS to specify “how institutions shall determine the adjustments to the business indicator” (point (a) of Article 315(3) referencing mergers, acquisitions and disposals), “the conditions according to which competent authorities may grant the permission” and “the timing of the adjustments” (points (b) and (c) of Article 315(3) referencing disposals only).

Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 (‘the CRR’) as amended by Regulation (EU) 2024/1623 (‘CRR 3’) mandates the EBA, in article 430(7), to develop draft implementing technical standards to specify uniform reporting formats, and IT solutions, including instructions, for supervisory reporting requirements of institutions.

Next steps

After the submission of the final draft ITS to the Commission for adoption, the EBA will publish on the website the IT tools, including binding instructions. The EBA will publish during Q4 2025 a technical package, including the DPM, validation rules and taxonomy, that shall be used by institutions to submit this supervisory reporting information to supervisors. The first applicable reference date for reporting under the draft ITS is 31 March 2026.

An updated version of the mapping tool between supervisory reporting and disclosure requirements for Operational risk will be published soon.

Source: European Banking Authority

​The European Banking Authority (EBA) issued today a revised list of validation rules in its Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) on supervisory reporting, highlighting those which have been deactivated either for incorrectness or for triggering IT problems. Competent Authorities throughout the EU are informed that data submitted in accordance with these ITS should not be formally validated against the set of deactivated rules. The EBA also released today a small validation package including a micro taxonomy package and DPM VR deactivation updates scripts, which are needed from release 4.0, for each deactivation exercises, to deactivate rules in taxonomy and in DPM in a consistent manner. 

Source: European Banking Authority

The European Banking Authority (EBA) published today a No Action letter advising the EU Commission, EU Council and EU Parliament to ensure that, in the long term, EU law needs to avoid a dual authorisation under two pieces of EU law for the activity of transacting electronic money tokens (EMTs). While the existing Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) still applies, the letter advises national competent authorities (NCAs) to enforce authorisation of PSD2 for a specified subset only of crypto asset service providers (CASPs) that transact EMTs, to do so only after a transition period that ends on 2 March 2026, and then to deprioritise specified PSD2 provisions.

The letter assesses the provisions set out in MiCA and PSD2 and advises NCAs under PSD2 to view the transfer of crypto assets as a payment service under PSD2 where they entail EMTs and are carried out by the entities on behalf of their clients. It sets out provisions to regard the custody and administration of EMTs as a payment service and to regard a custodial wallet as a payment account where the wallet is held in the name of one or more clients and allows to send and receive EMTs to and from third parties.

For these services, the No Action letter advises NCAs to require an authorisation under PSD2 only from 2 March 2026 onwards and, during the authorisation process, to apply streamlined procedures that make maximum use of information that legal entities provide during their CASP authorisation process.

Once an authorisation as a payment services provider is held, NCAs are advised not to prioritise the supervision and enforcement of several elements of PSD2, such as safeguarding, the disclosure of information to consumers (pertaining to the level of applicable charges, the maximum execution time of payment transactions, the unique identifier such as IBAN, and open banking). However, NCAs are also advised to insist on the compliance with other PSD2 provisions, such as strong customer authentication (SCA) for accessing custodial wallets that qualify as payment account and the initiating of EMT transfers, the reporting of payment fraud, and the cumulative calculation of own funds requirements. This is to ensure equally high standards of consumer protection regardless of whether a consumer is using EMTs or more traditional funds as a means of payment.

Furthermore, NCAs are advised not to consider as payment services (and therefore not to subject to the application of PSD2, including its provisions on licensing) the ‘exchange of crypto-assets for funds’ and ‘exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets’ as defined in MiCA. Additionally, the EBA advises NCAs not to regard as a payment service cases where crypto-asset service providers intermediate the purchase of any crypto-assets with EMTs, and, therefore, not to enforce the application of PSD2 nor to require an authorisation under PSD2 in such cases.

This advice will result in a large number of EMT transactions not being subject to PSD2 requirements during the intervening period while the Directive still applies. The EBA bases this advice solely on the acknowledgement that any alternative advice would require a much larger number of CASPs to obtain a second authorization. The EBA considers such an alternative to be undesirable, given the burden that dual authorisation would impose on CASPs.

By contrast, the EBA does not base this advice on the conviction that an authorisation as a CASP under MiCA is sufficient to address the risks that arise from EMT transactions. On the contrary, the success of PSD1, PSD2 and EMD over the past 15 years in bringing about a secure and competitive market for payment services in the EU has shown that for retail payments to be able effectively to fulfil their role in a modern society, consumers and other market actors should be adequately protected and have a high degree of confidence in the stability of the market and the reliability of payment transactions.

Legal basis and background

The EBA has issued the letter in response to a request received from the European Commission in December 2024 to address, in close cooperation with ESMA, issues arising from the interplay between MiCA and PSD2. The EBA’s competence to deliver the letter in the form of an Opinion is based on Article 9c of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010.