Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (Netherlands)

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The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties; BZK) is the Dutch ministry of home affairs. The current minister is Guusje ter Horst; she is aided by a state secretary Ank Bijleveld-Schouten.

Contents 1 Responsibilities 2 Organisation 3 History 4 Ministers 5 Ministers without Portfolio 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Responsibilities

The Ministry is called the "Mother of all Ministries" because most ministries, like the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Education, Culture and Science split from the ministry at one time or another or the "residual ministry", because it is left with a diverse set of responsibilities after this process.^[1] It has the legal mission to:

• uphold the Constitution of the Netherlands;
• guarantee the democratic rule of law;
• ensure an effective and efficient public administration, including lower governments, the municipalites, provinces and water boards;
• promote public order and safety and provide centralised management of the country's police forces;
• promote the quality of the civil service and coordinate management and personnel policy for all civil servants;
• coordinate cooperation within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, namely with Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles.

Because it shares so many responsibilities and the same building with the Ministry of Justice, they are sometimes called the twin ministries.

[edit] Organisation

The ministry is currently headed by one ministers and one state secretary. It employes almost 3,000 civil servants. The ministry's main office is located in the centre of the Hague in the same building as the ministry of Justice. The civil service is headed by a secretary general and a vice-secretary general, who head a system of four directorates general:

• The Directorat General for Public Administration
• The Directorat General for Public Order and Safety
• The Directorat General for Management and Personnel Policy
• The Directorat General for Constitutional Affairs and Kingdom Relations.

An important autonomous agency of the ministry is the Dutch Secret Service.

[edit] History

The ministry was founded in 1798 as the department for internal policy and supervision on the state of water works in Batavian Republic. Since 1801 it has been named Ministry of the Interior, and some other responsibilities have been added to its name: Agriculture (1922-1932) and Kingdom Relations (1998-date). Between 1959 and 1998 a minister was given the portfolio of relations with Surinam, the Dutch Antilles and Aruba in addition to his other portfolios before that, there was a minister of Colonial Affairs, which was called Overseas Affairs after 1945.

[edit] Ministers

Name	Office	Party	Prime Minister	Note(s)	Office
Pieter Verdam	1966-1967	ARP	Jelle Zijlstra
Henk Beernink	1967-1971	CHU	Piet de Jong
Molly Geertsema	1971-1973	VVD	Barend Biesheuvel
Wilhelm de Gaay Fortman	1973-1977	PvdA	Joop den Uyl
Hans Wiegel	1977-1981	VVD	Dries van Agt	Deputy Prime Minister	1977-1981
Ed van Thijn	1981-1982	PvdA	Dries van Agt
Max Rood	1982	D66	Dries van Agt
Koos Rietkerk	1982-1986	VVD	Ruud Lubbers
Frits Korthals Altes	1986	VVD	Ruud Lubbers
Rudolf de Korte	1986	VVD	Ruud Lubbers
Kees van Dijk	1986-1989	CDA	Ruud Lubbers
Ien Dales	1989-1994	PvdA	Ruud Lubbers
Ernst Hirsch Ballin	1994	CDA	Ruud Lubbers
Ed van Thijn	1994	PvdA	Ruud Lubbers
Dieuwke de Graaff-Nauta	1994	CDA	Ruud Lubbers
Hans Dijkstal	1994-1998	VVD	Wim Kok	Deputy Prime Minister	1994-1998
Bram Peper	1998-2000	PvdA	Wim Kok
Roger van Boxtel	2000	D66	Wim Kok
Klaas de Vries	2000-2002	PvdA	Wim Kok
Johan Remkes	2002-2007	VVD	Jan Peter Balkenende	Deputy Prime Minister	2002-2003
Guusje ter Horst	2007-	PvdA	Jan Peter Balkenende

[edit] Ministers without Portfolio

• 2006-2007 Atzo Nicolai (VVD; minister without portfolio for government reform and kingdom relations)
• 2005-2006 Alexander Pechtold (D'66; minister without portfolio for government reform and kingdom relations)
• 2003-2005 Thom de Graaf (D'66; minister without portfolio for government reform and kingdom relations)
• 1998-2002 Roger van Boxtel (PvdA; minister without porfolio for large cities and integration)

[edit] References

1. ^ Neelen et al. (2003) De bestuurlijk kaart van Nederland p.63

[edit] External links

• Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations

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