Municipal political structure
The municipal political structure consists of three administrative bodies:
- The City Council is the highest administrative body of the municipality and has 39 members who are elected by the residents of Maastricht.
- The Municipal Executive (Dutch acronym: b & w) is formed during political coalition negotiations after elections and presently consists of four aldermen/women and the mayor.
- The mayor is chairperson of the City Council and of the municipal executive.
What do the municipal executive and the City Council actually do?
The City Council sets out global priorities: for example more jobs, more housing, a greater focus on public transport etc. The Council also determines the level of local taxes. The Council sets down its plans each year in the annual budget, which also specifies how much money is available for specific plans.
The municipal executive executes the wishes of the Council. In doing so, the municipal executive manages the city's daily affairs and is responsible for managing city officials. Each year, the municipal executive is held accountable by the City Council and the citizens of Maastricht regarding the manner in which it has carried out the wishes of the Council. This takes place in the so-called municipal accounting session. The Council then determines to what extent the goals have been realised, whether the goals must be adjusted, and whether new goals must be added. The City Council can be compared to the Lower House, and the municipal executive can be compared to the national cabinet.
How does the Council make decisions?
The political process proceeds according to a fixed structure every month.
1 Determining what will be discussed and decided upon
On the basis of the coalition agreement, projects, actual developments or other forms of input, the need arises to formulate policy on a specific topic. City officials (at the request of the municipal executive), the political parties in the Council (proposals initiated by the Council) or citizens (citizens’ initiative) prepare a proposal for the Council.
2 The political parties study the proposal
Every political party represented in the Council holds a meeting to discuss the proposal to the Council and determines its position for the time being.
3 The Council committee discusses the proposal
In this phase, it becomes clear what the most important aspects of the topic are for each party. Three situations may then arise:
- All the political parties agree with the proposal, and the decision will be quite straightforward. The topic does not have to be discussed in the Council meeting but can simply be voted on.
- All the parties oppose the proposal. In this case, the alderman/woman concerned takes back the proposal to rework it.
- The parties do not agree with each other. In this case, it becomes a topic of discussion and is discussed further in the Council.
4 The political parties deliberate the matter further
Now that it has become clear what the positions of the various parties are, the parties meet again and discuss how they can convince the other parties during the Council meeting.
5 The City Council takes a decision
During the Council meeting, the topic and related documents are again discussed. Each party again explains its position, after which the alderman/woman concerned is given the opportunity to answer questions. After the discussion, the Council votes on the proposal. If the majority votes in favour, it is accepted. If the majority votes against, it is rejected.
Result
How can citizens influence matters?
Citizens can influence a decision to be taken by the Council at various times and in various ways. For example, you can:
- contact a city official involved in a particular matter to explain your position
- have a formal say in the matter (for Council decisions which, by law, are also subject to citizens’ participation)
- contact Council members who you think may be willing to express your position in the Council
- exercise the right of citizens to speak in the Council committee meetings; you may speak about topics which are on the agenda. If you wish to exercise your right to speak, you should register with the Registry of the Council (in Dutch only). It is not possible to speak during a Council meeting.
- place a topic on the agenda of the City Council by submitting a citizen initiative; you can do so if you have a plan, an idea or a detailed proposal which the Council must decide upon in order to proceed further. You can find more information on this topic on the Citizen Initiative page (in Dutch only).
- submit a protest/appeal against a decision taken by the Council (for decisions open to a protest/appeal).
Elections
Municipal elections are held once every four years. The next elections will be held on 3 March 2010. In our country, everyone of Dutch nationality who lives in the Netherlands and is 18 years or older on the day of the elections has the right to vote.
In the Netherlands, there are rules for determining who is entitled to vote in the elections and there are also rules determining who is entitled to run for election. There are several exceptions to the 18+ voting rule:
- the judge may disallow a person from voting (for example if a person has committed a serious crime against the state)
- the judge may determine that a person is mentally unfit to vote (for example, the judge can put a person under legal restraint)
- voters who are in jail on election day may vote only by authorising another person to do so for them
- Dutch persons who, on the day of the elections, actually reside in the Dutch Antilles or Aruba are not entitled to vote, as the Dutch Antilles and Aruba have their own parliament.
Possession of the Dutch nationality is not a requirement for participating in municipal elections: every adult who has lived in the Netherlands legally for a period of five years or longer is entitled to vote and to run for election. Dutch persons who reside outside of the Netherlands are also entitled to vote as long as they have lived in the Netherlands for a period of at least 10 years.