Constitution of The Netherlands - Amending The Constitution

Amending The Constitution

To amend the constitution, the proposed changes must first be approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate of the States-General with a simple majority (more than 50%). This law is called a voorstelwet or 'law to propose changes to the constitution' (lit. proposal law) and does not alter the constitution, but declares there are sufficient grounds for a certain proposal to change the constitution to be considered. The House of Representatives must then be dissolved and general elections held. The proposed changes to the constitution are then discussed a second time, this time needing a two-thirds majority in both houses of the States-General to approve them. This is intended to give voters a say in the matter, by allowing them the opportunity to elect a parliament to vote down the changes if desired. In practice, however, instead of disbanding the House of Representatives and having early elections, the proposal law is simply considered after the next regularly scheduled elections have been held. Consequently, unless early elections are held for some reason (e.g. following the collapse of the government) changes to the constitution can only occur once every four years. In earlier versions of the amendment process, the Senate was also dissolved whenever general elections were held and both Houses had approved a law to propose changes to the constitution. This was deemed a pointless addition to procedure, however, as the Senate is elected by the States-Provincial and the States-Provincial are not dissolved following the adoption of a proposal in parliament (see elections in the Netherlands). The Senate will therefore invariably have the same composition unless provincial elections are held as well. Neither holding provincial elections specially for this purpose, nor postponing consideration of the proposal to change the constitution until after the regularly scheduled provincial elections is considered a desirable alternative. Changes that involve the relations between the countries of the Kingdom must be proposed by a law formulated by the Government of the Realm.