Country data: Netherlands

All comparisons are with the figures for 10 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

The last 2 years, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Member State authorities to address pressing priorities and affected their performance in transposing EU rules to some degree. In this context, the Commission has taken a number of extraordinary measures aimed at relieving the strain on Member States’ administrative resources. Nevertheless, it has also made clear that the Member States’ legal obligations to transpose EU directives in time remain unchanged.

 

Transposition deficit (percentage of all directives not transposed): 1.6% (last report: 1%) – a marked increase of 0.6 percentage points. The Netherlands is one of nine Member States whose increasing deficit in the reporting period cause them to miss the 1% target set by the European Council. 
EU average = 1.6%; proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

After reaching its best ever result in December 2018 (0.3%), the Netherlands has been going in the wrong direction. In the previous reporting period, it was close losing control of the situation and now exceeds the 1% threshold. In addition, it did not transpose 10 of the 26 single market directives (38%) due to have been transposed in the 6 months before the cut-off date for calculating the deficit (1 June to 30 November 2021). This shows that the Netherlands may now have some difficulties organising the timely transposition of directives. Constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not help. However, transposition is an ongoing process and any let-up may result in the deficit quickly increasing.

Overdue directives: 16 (last report: 10), including 5 on financial services. No directive is more than 2 years overdue.

Average delay in transposing directives: 7.4 months (last report: 12.8 months) – a marked decrease of 5.4 months. Out of a group of nine Member States that reduced their delay in transposing directives in the reporting period, the Netherlands was the one with the highest decrease.  
EU average = 8.6 months

The Netherlands managed to transpose 2 long-overdue directives (2 years or more) that had significantly contributed to its high December 2020 average delay. It has still 5 outstanding directives due for a long time (more than 11 months) but their duration is offset by the shorter duration for its 11 other outstanding directives.

Conformity deficit (percentage of all directives transposed incorrectly): 1.3%; (last report: 1.7%) – a marked decrease of 0.4 percentage points.            
EU average = 1.3% proposed target (in the Single Market Act) = 0.5%

The number of new infringement proceedings that the Commission has launched against Member States for incorrectly transposing single market directives has more than halved in 2 years. Nevertheless, the number of ongoing cases is still high. With 13 directives presumed to have been incorrectly transposed, the Netherlands’ deficit is now fully in line with the EU average but very far from the 0.5% proposed target.

Evolution of transposition deficit

 

Evolution of conformity deficit

 

All comparisons are with the figures for 1 December 2020, the previous reporting date.

 

Pending single market cases: 21 (3 new cases, including 2 on transport, and 6 cases closed, including 3 on transport; last report: 24 pending cases) – a new decrease (of 2 cases). The Netherlands is below the EU average number of cases.    
EU average = 27 cases

The number of Dutch pending cases has remained constant over the past 7 years (between 18 and 26 cases). The Netherlands among the top ten Member States with the lowest number of pending cases, as it was already in the previous reporting period.

The Commission launched 120 new cases against Member States in the reporting period (besides those for late transposition), and these were still pending on 1 December 2021. A total of 3 cases were launched against the Netherlands, which is below the EU average of 4 new cases launched in a year. Some 6 Dutch cases have been resolved since December 2020, which is less than the EU average (8).

Problematic sectors: transport (5 cases); energy, the environment, services and professions, and direct taxation (3 cases each). Together, these make up 81% of all pending cases.

Average case duration: 51.7 months for the 21 single market cases not yet sent to the European Court of Justice (last report: 42.6 months) – this is a new marked increase of 9.1 months and the longest average case duration ever for the Netherlands, well above the EU average.             
EU average = 42.8 months

The average case duration of Dutch cases has significantly increased in the last 3 years (+39%). The Netherlands is now in the top three Member States whose cases have the longest average duration (compared to the tenth position last year). Six Dutch cases, on air transport, direct taxation and financial services, have been ongoing for between 6 and 14 years and have considerable effect on the calculation of the average duration. This was despite the launch of 3 new cases (less than 1 year old) and the resolution of 5 cases whose average duration was around 2 years.

Time taken to comply with Court rulings: 61.5 months for the four single market cases at the Court-ruling stage of the procedure and closed in the last 5 years (last report: 25.5 months).   
EU average = 46.8 months

The Netherlands is one of five Member States whose average time to comply increased the most in the reporting period (+36 month). This is mainly because 1 case on air transport was recently solved more than 14 years after the Court ruling, with the entry into force of the EU-U.S. Air Transport Agreement (29 June 2020). The 3 other cases needed a moderate time lag for compliance (between 1.5 and 3 years).

Evolution of infringement cases

Performance – The Netherlands performed poorly.

• Results for four indicators were below or equal to the EEA average.
• Performance decreased significantly for the requests accepted within 1 week.
• Performance on requests answered within deadline improved noticeably but remained below the average.

• Caseload – large
  Submitted cases: 81 (97 in 2020)
  Received cases: 41 (42 in 2020)

• Cases not accepted: 120 (124 in 2020)

• Resolution rate: 78% (89% in 2020)
• Handling time (as home centre)
  Reply within 7 days: 84% (98% in 2020) – good
  Cases prepared within 30 days: 71% (82% in 2020) – poor
  Solutions accepted within 7 days: 67% (91% in 2020 ) – poor

• Cases not accepted within 30 days: 66% (69% in 2020) - poor

• Handling time (as lead centre)
  Cases accepted within 7 days: 76% (89% in 2020) –good
  Cases closed within 10 weeks: 66% (84% in 2020) – poor
• Staffing level
  Urgent requiring action

In 2022, the average payment delay (the time exceeding the legal or agreed payment terms) by public authorities in the Netherlands was 13 days.

The average number of days needed for a business to have its Invoices paid by other businesses (business-to-business payments) was 51.85 days.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Burden of government regulation (survey replies: 1 = worst, 7 = best)	4.5	3.6
Digital public services to start and run a business (100% = best performing)	87.8%	n/a
Payment delays by public authorities	13 days	15.7 days
Time to resolve insolvency	1.1 years	2.0 years
Impact of regulation on long-term investment decisions (survey replies)	14.2%	n/a

Indicator	2021	EU average
Single bidder	13%	25%
No calls for bids	7%	6%
Publication rate (value advertised on Tenders Electronic Daily, in % of GDP)	2.5%	5.9%
Cooperative procurement (proportion of procedures with more than one buyer)	3%	5%
Award criteria (proportion of procedures awarded to cheapest bid)	19%	64%
Decision speed (days)	71	99
SME contractors	64%	61%
SME bids	64%	73%
Procedures divided into lots	17%	31%
Missing calls for bids	2%	1%
Missing seller registration numbers	50%	29%
Missing buyer registration numbers	8%	11%

Note: A typical (mid-ranking) EU country is used for the EU average for all indicators except the publication rate. Due to delays in data availability, publication rate results are based on 2020 data.

Indicator	2021	EU average
Restrictiveness indicator – architect	1.1	2.5
Restrictiveness indicator – accountant	1.9	1.7
Restrictiveness indicator – civil engineer	0.0	2.4
Restrictiveness indicator – lawyer	3.0	3.4
Restrictiveness indicator – real estate agent	0.0	1.3
Restrictiveness indicator – patent agent	2.0	2.2
Restrictiveness indicator – tourist guide	0.0	1.2
Domestic priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 0.91	€ 0.88
Intra-EU priority letter prices, letter 20 g (2020)	€ 1.50	€ 1.53
Domestic transit times, day+1 performance, priority letters 20 g (2020)	94.3%	84.2%

Note: The EU restrictiveness indicator (EURI) measures the level of restrictiveness for the cross-border provision of services and the right of establishment for seven groups of professional services with a high share in EU firms’ intermediate consumption or cross-border mobility. The level of restrictiveness is measured on a scale from 0 (least restrictive) to 6 (most restrictive). 

Indicator	2021	EU average
Access to public financial support (% of SMEs indicating deterioration)	11.4%	11.3%
Time to get paid by businesses (2022 survey)	51.9 days	52.5 days
Venture capital investments (% of GDP)	0.95%	0.48%