All 15 Zeeland authorities have established the updated Zeeland standard for resilient government. With this joint standard, the province, municipalities, and water board express how they work on integrity, safety, and administrative resilience.
One joint standard for all of Zeeland
The Zeeland standard has been in effect since 2022 and has been further developed over the past years based on practical experiences. The updated standard is more concrete, sharper, and more ambitious. The standard contains agreements on, among other things, integrity, information security, and enforcement.
Refinement based on experience
Based on experiences from recent years, the standard has been tightened. Where principles were previously formulated, it is now concretely laid down what these mean in practice. This makes the standard not only more ambitious but especially clearer and more explicit.
For example, it has been agreed to register all threats towards politicians and report them if there is reason to do so. To improve information security, it has been agreed that all Zeeland authorities are informed quarterly about threat images, risks, and measures, and that periodic exercises with (disaster) scenarios are held. Attention is drawn to resilience in various ways throughout the year, making it part of daily work.
“This is a great milestone,” said Hugo de Jonge, Kings Commissioner. “The Zeeland authorities make the dilemmas around resilience discussable and hold themselves accountable with this Zeeland standard. That is powerful.”
‘Double hats’
In the run-up to signing the Zeeland Standard, one tightening received the most attention, namely the norm that stacking political functions is undesirable. “Stacking functions can lead to an undesirable concentration of influence and the appearance of conflicts of interest. Although the law does not prohibit it, you should not want it – especially not in a province with a strong we-know-each-other culture like ours,” said Hugo de Jonge.
Logical moment towards elections
In 2026, new municipal councils and colleges will take office. That means new people in new roles with new responsibilities. The updated Zeeland standard offers a clear and joint framework to help new administrators and representatives start well.
The Zeeland approach also does not go unnoticed nationally
Zeeland is regularly mentioned as an example region in the field of administrative resilience. Nationally unique is that all 15 authorities do this together and have been structurally collaborating on resilience for several years.
Minister Van Weel of Justice and Security will visit Zeeland next Monday regarding, among other things, the Zeeland standard.