Provinces of the Netherlands

The provinces of the Netherlands go back to old feudal units, at least since the French around 1800, they have their present importance as administrative units of the central government. Since 1 January 1986, the Netherlands are divided into twelve provinces ( provincies ).

The provinces are divided into four groups often:

The provinces in turn are divided into a total of 408 municipalities ( gemeenten ). In the European NUTS classification they correspond NUTS2; they are comparable with the administrative districts in some German states, roughly. At the head of a province a Commissaris van de Koning is ( Commissioner of the King), appointed by the Minister of the Interior. The Commissioner chairs the Provincial Parliament, the Provinciale Staten, as is the government of the province, it is called Gedeputeerde Staten.

Survey

Importance

The Dutch provinces form the administrative level between the national government and the municipalities. In their area of ​​responsibility are issues of regional importance. They are mainly entrusted with tasks of spatial planning and community supervision, in addition to a fairly broad range of environmental, social affairs and culture. The conditions are, however, quite narrow set of ministries in The Hague. By far the largest part of the revenue comes from the national Provinciefonds. Only the motor vehicle tax may be determined by the provinces, and assigns from province to province quite high differences.

The provinces are not to be equated with the German federal states, because they have no autonomy and may be reordered by the Dutch Minister of the Interior. Since the 19th century, very little has changed on the classifications. However, there are attempts to summarize the northern provinces of Overijssel and Gelderland to join or set up in the city Randstad provinces (eg Rotterdam). A more radical proposal of the party D66 wants to replace the provinces by a handful of the country. 2012 has announced the second Cabinet Rutte, to replace the twelve provinces in the long term by five parts of the country.

The interest of the population for the provinces is rather low, which can be recognized by the low turnout for the Provinciale Staten ( the 60 percent of 2011 were above average). The provincial councils of all the provinces together choose the members of the First Chamber of the Dutch Parliament, which also has a much smaller role than for example the German Bundesrat.

Since 1986 there is the Interprovinciaal Overleg (IPO, such as: deliberation between the provinces ). It has one seat each province as liaison body treats the IPO issues such as coalition agreements, savings, issues relating to laws. It has several dozen employees and resides in The Hague against the building of the Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten. As this community covenant is the IPO is a membership organization.

Traditionally, the three western provinces of North Holland, South Holland and Utrecht were ( the Randstad ) to be rich and the other poor. Today, the picture is more differentiated. Thus, especially Gelderland and Overijssel get much money from the sale of energy stocks. The western provinces, including Flevoland and the North are consistently poor.

Structure

The Provinciale Staten (abbreviated Staten or PS) is the parliament of the province, which is elected every four years, in the Statenverkiezingen. Originally, the provincial parliament as the bestuur ( government management) of the province, from whose ranks the actual government was formed: Gedeputeerde Staten (GS). Since 2003, only GS is considered the government. It shall be composed of:

  • The deputies, confidant of the majority in the PS, which assign their own areas of responsibility to each other,
  • The Commissaris van de Koning - the Interior Minister appointed by the royal commissioner, who shall preside at the Staten Gedeputeerde.

For example, in Friesland the Commissaris is from the VVD party, and there are in college five deputies, two from the CDA, two of the PvdA and one of the " ChristianUnion ". One of the Gedeputeerden is the same loco- commissaris, a kind of ( democratically legitimated ) representative of commissaris. GS is supported by a secretaris - directeur; in the other provinces is his title provinciesecretaris.

Municipalities in the Netherlands States-Provincial Assen Emmen, Netherlands Almere Leeuwarden Groningen Maastricht Eindhoven Haarlem Amsterdam Zwolle Middelburg Binnenhof Flags of provinces of the Netherlands Statistics Netherlands Politics of the Netherlands States General of the Netherlands College van burgemeester en wethouders Water board (The Netherlands)
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