Since January 2014 the Advisory Division of the Council of State is charged with the independent supervision in the Netherlands of compliance with the fiscal rules that have been agreed upon in Europe. This duty stems from the Stability Treaty agreed to by 25 EU Member States in 2012.

An important objective of the Stability and Growth Pact and Stability Treaty is to strengthen fiscal discipline. So in conformity with the European agreements, the Sustainable Public Finances Act legally anchors the European fiscal objectives on a national level. Part of the agreements is that a Member State must have an independent institution which is charged with the supervision of compliance with the European fiscal rules.

Duty

The Advisory Division assesses whether the draft budget complies with the European fiscal agreements. For its independent budgetary monitoring, the Advisory Division makes use of the estimations of the Dutch Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB). It prevents the need for the Advisory Division from having to make its own quantitive analyses and calculations. The assessment as the supervisory authority must not be confused with the traditional opinion on the Budget Memorandum which the Council of State has already published over more than a hundred years.

Bi-annual reports

Twice a year the Advisory Division issues a report on fiscal monitoring. These reports are published in April and in September and correspond with the most important moments in the national and European budget cycle. The spring report is an assessment of the so-called Stability Programme that the government must present to the European Commission and the Council of Ministers before 1 May. The Advisory Division offers the reports to the government and to European institutions. The government submits the reports to the House of Representatives.