Eurofound's COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the crisis, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for case NL-2020-23/1040 – Updated – measures in Netherlands
Country | Netherlands , applies nationwide |
Time period | Open ended, started on 01 June 2020 |
Type | Other initiatives or policies |
Category |
Supporting businesses to stay afloat
– Access to finance |
Author | Amber van der Graaf (Panteia) and Eurofound |
Case created | 17 August 2020 (updated 27 May 2021) |
The Dutch government presented a package of emergency measures to support businesses and workers during the corona crisis. The cultural and creative sector was particularly badly hit by the crisis and this has led to extra measures being taken. On 27 March, the Minister for Education, Culture and Science sent a letter to Parliament explaining the need for and content of the planned measures.
Following this first letter on plans to initiate a package of measures, a few weeks later, the announcement was made (after lobbying form the cultural and creative sector), that more support was needed. The Minister for Education, Culture and science announced on 15 April that more financing would be provided to the sector.
The €300 million reserved for the cultural sector is to be allocated via several instruments; the Open Loan for Monuments is one of these instruments.
This measure is one of the instruments being used to funnel the €300 million to the cultural and creative sectors. The measure targets privately owned, publicly accessible national monuments and heritage sites. This includes churches, windmills, castles, outdoor areas, industrial heritage sites, museum institutes, and city renovation and restoration sites. The measure includes a loan for owners of these types of heritage and monument sites. The loan, granted by the National Restoration Fund (NRF), runs 15 years at 1% interest, varies from €10,000 to €2 million, and has the option for delayed payments. The loan is open until the end of 2020 with a budget or €50 million reserved for the loan by the government.
The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.
18 May 2021 |
See case NL-2020-21/980, Open monument loan |
No information available yet.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Does not apply to workers |
Sector specific set of companies
|
Does not apply to citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
National government
Other social actors (e.g. NGOs) |
National funds
|
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | Consulted | Consulted |
Form | Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies | Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
As with the Extra package of support measures for the cultural sector, the sector had lobbied for more support from the government, showing that their sector is being especially badly hit. Based on consultation and discussion with organisations form the sector and cultural funds, the government decided to add extra financial support to the existing emergency measures for the cultural and creative sectors. The involvement of social partners focused mainly on the design of the measures, though some national funds are involved in the implementation of this measure.
Given that the social partners lobbied for extra financing for these sectors specifically, it is reasonable to assume that social partners are satisfied with the outcomes. The government has indicated that interaction with social partners has generally been good during the COVID-19 crisis, though more details than this are difficult to identify.
This case is sector-specific
Economic area | Sector (NACE level 2) |
---|---|
R - Arts, Entertainment And Recreation | R91 Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities |
This case is not occupation-specific.
Citation
Eurofound (2020), Loan for the opening of monuments and heritage sites, case NL-2020-23/1040 (measures in Netherlands), COVID-19 EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, http://eurofound.link/covid19eupolicywatch
Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process. All information is preliminary and subject to change.