Public affairs
NBIP is keen to contribute to issues that are important to its participants and to a safe and reliable internet. NBIP does this by providing its views, both solicited and unsolicited, on legislative proposals, regulations and policy, and by participating in various public-private partnerships. NBIP, together with AMS-IX, SIDN and SURF, is a member of the umbrella organisation Digital Infrastructure Netherlands (DINL). NBIP also participates in a range of public-private partnerships, including the Anti-DDoS Coalition.
The approach underpinning NBIP’s public affairs activities is always to bring the practical challenges faced by participants in complying with legislation and regulations to the attention of the relevant decision-makers. As NBIP is also operationally active through its shared services, it can provide a clear picture of how legislation and policy impact day-to-day business. We do this systematically across four key areas:
-
Digital resilience and digital autonomy in digital infrastructure
-
Operational compliance with laws and regulations
-
DDoS protection
-
Abuse prevention
NBIP is not, by its very nature, a trade association, but provides operational services for the benefit of its members. By combining public affairs activities with these services, NBIP can highlight the interests of its members more effectively to political stakeholders.
Developments 2025
In 2025, progress was made regarding NBIP’s public affairs activities. The team now includes a member dedicated to public affairs. Together with the director, they are working to implement the strategy set out based on the aforementioned issues on which NBIP is actively engaged.
In addition, concrete actions have been taken on the four issues. For example, cooperation with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has been intensified. Another highlight of our public affair’s activities was the invitation to the V-100 (Accountability Day) in the House of Representatives. On this day, one hundred citizens who have direct contact with one or more public bodies are invited each year. The number 100 represents the hundred citizens invited by the House to critically review the ministers’ annual reports and question the ministers on these matters.
NBIP has also shared its views on the supervision surrounding the upcoming eEvidence Regulation and accompanying directive.
Position paper: ‘Strategic digital autonomy and the government-wide cloud policy’
In recent times, it has rapidly become clear that there are significant risks associated with our digital dependency. The fact that access to widely used cloud services can be used as a means of geopolitical pressure is just one example of this. This dependency therefore creates unnecessary and risky dependence. Concrete steps must therefore be taken immediately to reduce this dependency.
For this reason, the position paper ‘Strategic digital autonomy and the government-wide cloud policy’ was presented last year to Members of Parliament Barbara Kathmann and Jesse Six Dijkstra. The position paper was produced through a collaboration between various companies and organisations. The aim of the position paper is to present a vision for the implementation of cloud policy within the government. Based on this vision, the following three concrete actions have emerged:
-
- Create a new category of cloud services for sensitive government data, essential government services and critical physical infrastructure, subject to additional procurement requirements relating to digital strategic autonomy.
- Promote freedom of choice and fair competition in the cloud market by making data portability and interoperability mandatory for non-critical cloud services and by implementing robust exit strategies. This also prevents the risk of vendor lock-in, where migration to another supplier is virtually impossible due to complexity and/or high costs.
- Continue to emphasise the coordinating role within the government regarding the procurement policy for cloud services. This role is crucial to implementing a successful cloud policy in the long term.
