In the search for a coordinator, the cabinet now turns to veteran Stef Blok, who knows many departments inside out. In January he resigned as Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, before that he was also Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister for Housing, Minister of Security and Justice and for a while a substitute for the Interior.
In the House there are great concerns about the Dutch hunt for Russian possessions, which is lagging behind that of many neighboring countries. The Netherlands has so far frozen 516 million euros worth of Russian assets in the Netherlands and blocked 155 million euros worth of transactions. Actions against real estate, art or company property have not materialized yet, while that is probably where most of the work is to be done.
The frustration about the process is widely shared in the House, in opposition and coalition factions, as well as the fear that the cabinet is offering rich Russians too many opportunities to get their belongings out of here. ‘People bring their yachts and shares to safety’, says D66 MP Sjoerdsma.
Hoekstra failed to clarify last week why it is taking longer than the House wishes, but he did paint a picture of many departments and government services involved, all of which are somewhat responsible but struggle to communicate with each other. He failed to get a handle on it. ‘Foreign Affairs is not equipped for overarching sanctions monitoring, it has to come from those departments. They go into full depth on the financial, operational and real estate.’
Because the House is not satisfied with this, the cabinet is now forced to appoint a central coordinator. Blok must ensure coordination between the various ministries. He can ‘appeal and encourage them’, according to the minister.
Blok will formally become chairman of the ‘Government-wide Sanctions Steering Group’. There is room for all the departments involved plus the implementing organizations such as the tax investigation service Fiod. At the same time, a special project director was appointed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday. He heads an ‘interdepartmental task force’. The task group works on behalf of the steering group, Hoekstra wrote to the House of Representatives.