The audit report we published on 15 June 2023 provides an overview of the formal and informal procedures initiated between 2010 and 2020 to address possible infringements of EU law. This was the first time that these procedures had been examined together in an audit.

We found that:

  • The European Commission received 1,025 complaints against the Netherlands. Most of these concerned employment, the environment and the single market. The Commission concluded that 164 complaints were warranted. Of these cases, 92 were subject to an EU Pilot and 18 prompted the Commission to launch an immediate formal infringement procedure.
  • Other member states initiated 443 SOLVIT cases against the Netherlands. Of these, 363 have been resolved, giving a resolution rate of 84.2%. Most of the complaints related to social security and the free movement of persons, and came from the United Kingdom, Poland and Germany.
  • A total of 264 EU Pilot procedures, covering nearly all policy areas, were launched against the Netherlands. Of these, 177 (67%) were closed with the Commission accepting the Netherlands’ response and refraining from taking further steps. EU Pilots therefore have a preventive effect. A total of 54 procedures, however, led to further action by the Commission, including 39 infringement procedures. 
  • Where the Commission considered the Netherlands’ implementation and/or application of EU law to be incorrect or incomplete, it initiated 67 infringement procedures on substantive grounds. At the end of 2020, 49 of the procedures had been closed. The outcome could be reconstructed in 38 cases. In most of these cases, the Netherlands complied with the Commission’s requirements.
  • The Commission referred 13 cases to the Court of Justice during the period audited. The Court has ruled on 10 of them. It found against the Netherlands in 6 of them and the Netherlands accordingly had to amend national law in order to comply with EU law.
  • The Netherlands was involved in 605 cases involving preliminary rulings: 260 of these were brought before the Court of Justice by a Dutch court, while in the remainder the Netherlands decided to take part in a case referred by a court in another member state. In a clear majority of the cases, the Court of Justice’s ruling agreed with the Netherlands’ stance.

More information:

National comparisons

The Commission compares the member states’ performance in infringement and SOLVIT procedures on its Single Market Scoreboard. The Commission provides only a general impression of performance in EU Pilots.

The country page on the Netherlands summarises the country’s performance in broad lines. Based on the Commission’s information, the Netherlands’ implementation of EU law and its performance in infringement procedures are more or less average in comparison with the other member states.

More information