Philanthropy Advocacy states concerns about new Dutch draft law

The Philanthropy Advocacy initiative prepared and submitted comments to the online consultation on the Dutch act on transparency of civil society organisations of the Netherlands. We have collaborated closely on the matter with the FIN (the Dutch foundation network), which issued a joint Dutch contribution to the consultation with the SBF and is explicitly also welcoming our additional viewpoints from the European level philanthropy infrastructure. With support of other legal experts (in particular ECNL and additional researchers), we came to the initial analysis that the draft law potentially:

• has negative consequences for funders and public-benefit organisations in the Netherlands and the wider Europe and hence limit its role and contribution to society
• puts at risk the status of the Netherlands as a philanthropy friendly environment and
  as a strong defender for safeguarding civic space in Europe.
• is not be in line with the overall existing approaches with regard to transparency and accountability
• conflicts with EU values, Treaty Freedoms and Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the EU and the European Convention of Human Rights EU law and rule of law principles

We sense that the Dutch case could set a precedent in moving too far with unclear requirements and lack of protection mechanisms and hence consider a response also from European philanthropy infrastructure (DAFNE/EFC) perspective important.

See here for a full text of our contribution and for more information, please contact hsurmatz@efc.be

About the DAFNE-EFC Philanthropy Advocacy initiative

The DAFNE-EFC Philanthropy Advocacy initiative acts as a monitoring, legal analysis and advocacy hub for European philanthropy. Go to Philanthropy Advocacy for the European Philanthropy Manifesto, knowledge resources, news and more!