Secretary-General outreach in The Netherlands

International IDEA’s Secretary-General travelled to the Netherlands on 17 and 18 November 2016, as part of International IDEA’s efforts to intensify its outreach to its member states.

While in The Hague, he and Sam van der Staak, International IDEA’s Senior Programme Manager for Wider Europe, held a bilateral meeting with Minister Bert Koenders, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, to discuss how to further deepen the cooperation between the Netherlands and International IDEA. In the same vein, they also met with Christiaan Rebergen, Director General for International Cooperation (DGIS) at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representatives of Dutch political parties: Han ten Broeke, People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) MP, Stientje van Veldhoven, Democrats 66 (D66) MP and Joost Sneller, Director Hans van Mierlo Stichting, the academic and foreign relations arm of D66.

Whilst in the Netherlands, International IDEA's Secretary-General also attended the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) conference on International Cooperation in Soest, where he made a keynote speech on “A stable Netherlands in an unstable world”. The meetings provided an opportunity to reconfirm the mutual support between the Netherlands and International IDEA and deepen the engagement between both parts. During the meetings, International IDEA’s Secretary-General had the opportunity to provide an update on International IDEA’s most recent activities in the field of political party support, constitution-building, conflict, electoral processes and democratic analysis, as well as the recent move of its new Wider Europe programme to International IDEA’s office in The Hague. The Secretary-General also discussed the engagement of The Netherlands in International IDEA’s strategy development process, in preparation for the formulation of International IDEA’s new six-year strategy.