July 10, 2025

On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, the Senate adopted a proposal indicating that the Chamber believes it is sufficiently informed about a confidential business case. This concerns financial obligations that the cabinet wishes to enter into before two incidental supplementary budgets are approved by parliament. The substantive consideration of both budgets will follow after the summer recess.

Article 2.27

This week, caretaker Minister Karremens of Economic Affairs and caretaker Minister Brekelmans of Defense sent two incidental supplementary budgets to the House of Representatives. Additionally, they sent two letters to parliament announcing their intention to invoke Article 2.27, paragraph 2 of the 2016 Accounting Act. In these, they express the intention to enter into financial obligations before the budgets are approved. This can only be done if both the House of Representatives and the Senate have stated that they consider themselves sufficiently informed. This can be done simultaneously or sequentially. For this, the Senate does not need to wait for the usual outcome of the vote in the House of Representatives regarding legislative proposals. On Tuesday, July 8, the letters were discussed in the committee for Economic Affairs/Climate and Green Growth, and the committee for Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Development Cooperation, with the question of whether the senators consider themselves sufficiently informed. In the evening, both proposals were adopted by the Chamber by a large majority. Only the FVD faction and Kemperman faction voted against.

Amendment-Heinen

It is not often that a cabinet invokes Article 2.27. Changes to budgets typically occur at several fixed moments during the year. The 2016 Accounting Act gives the cabinet the option to submit an incidental supplementary budget. In emergencies, a minister can even make expenditures before parliament has approved the budgets. To prevent unrestrained use of this option, the Heinen amendment was adopted during the Accountability Debate in the House of Representatives in 2023. This amendment states that both Chambers must immediately assess whether they have been properly informed when a minister wants to carry out a budget change while it has not yet been approved by parliament.