VNO-NCW represents the interests of Dutch business and industry and provides a range of services to its members. VNO-NCW strives to represent its members' interests by promoting a high quality business environment and investment climate in the Netherlands, with a view to boosting the competitiveness of Dutch industry. VNO-NCW's involvement extends to matters relating to education, infrastructure, public finances, taxation, the environment and social security.
VNO-NCW's role in representing its members is reflected in its active ongoing contacts with the government, politicians, public authorities, trade unions and non-governmental bodies. As such VNO-NCW helps to define the socio-economic climate in the Netherlands; it also contributes to the drafting of new laws and regulations and has a say in government decisions which may affect the business sector.
As the voice of Dutch business, VNO-NCW sits on numerous government advisory and consultative committees. The most important of these are the Social and Economic Council (SER), one of the Dutch government's key advisory panels, and the Labour Foundation, the official central consultative forum for employers' and trade union representatives. VNO-NCW also consults with the government regularly on behalf of Dutch industry.
Alongside these largely institutionalised forms of representation, VNO-NCW also maintains less formal contacts with politicians, governments and other social groupings (such as other employers' organisations at home and abroad, trade unions, environmental groups and consumer organisations), the media and international organisations. To help it represent the interests of Dutch business in the European Union, VNO-NCW has its own office in Brussels. It is also a member of the European employers' organisation and actively participates in the policy-making of this body.
