About the tasks and administration of the province

The provinces form an administrative layer between the government of The Hague and the municipalities. You can see that in what the province is doing. Sometimes the province is an intermediary, often it coordinates things between the municipalities in the region. Matters which concern the whole province are dealt with by the province itself. The tasks and competences of the province lie in various fields. A special task is to elect the members of the Senate.

The Netherlands has twelve provinces, most of which have existed for a long time: Groningen, Fryslân, Drenthe, Overijssel, Gelderland, Flevoland, Utrecht, North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, North Brabant and Limburg. The youngest province is Flevoland, which has existed since 1986. Each province has a capital. The main feature of this capital is that the provincial house is located there. This is the building where the Provincial Council and the Provincial Executive meet and where many Provincial officials work.

In this dossier, we focus on the question of what the province does, how the province is organized and how citizens can influence the policy of the province.

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More information
Purchase or download the brochure Who governs the province? – (October 2017)