Steven Peter Robert Albert Van Weyenberg (; born 21 March 1973) is a Belgian-born Dutch politician of the social-liberal

Democrats 66 Democrats 66 (; D66) is a social liberal and progressive political party in the Netherlands, which is positioned on the centre to centre-left of the political spectrum. It is a member of the Liberal International (LI) and the Alliance of Li ...

(D66) party. He served on the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

and occupied several ministerial posts.

Career

Van Weyenberg studied economics and international relations, and he worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the

Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (; SZW) is the Dutch ministry responsible for social affairs, relations between employers and employees, social security, trade unions and emancipation. It was established in 1918 as the Ministry ...

. He joined D66 in 1994 and held a seat in the

between 2012 and 2023, focusing on finance and social affairs. He assisted his party during negotiations as part of the formation of the

third Rutte cabinet The third Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022 (since 15 January 2021 demissionary). It was formed by a coalition government of the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democra ...

, working on reforms of the tax system. These included changes to the

home mortgage interest deduction A home mortgage interest deduction is a form of housing subsidy that allows taxpayers who own their homes to reduce their taxable income by the amount of interest paid on the loan which is secured by their principal residence (or, sometimes, a ...

, an increase in the

value-added tax A value-added tax (VAT or goods and services tax (GST), general consumption tax (GCT)) is a consumption tax that is levied on the value added at each stage of a product's production and distribution. VAT is similar to, and is often compared wi ...

rate, and the creation of new

environmental tax An environmental tax, ecotax (short for ecological taxation), or green tax is a tax levied on activities which are considered to be harmful to the environment and is intended to promote environmentally friendly alternatives via economic incentive ...

es. As a member of parliament, Van Weyenberg proposed to abolish government benefits in favor of a single allowance following the childcare benefits scandal, in which citizens had been falsely accused of fraud by the

Tax and Customs Administration The Tax and Customs Administration () is the tax collection agency of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, operating under the Ministry of Finance. It's responsible for levying and collecting taxes, enforcing tax legislation, and investigating tax ...

. He temporarily left the House of Representatives to serve as State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management in the

demissionary A demissionary cabinet () is a type of caretaker government, caretaker cabinet of the Netherlands, cabinet or provisional government in the politics of the Netherlands, Netherlands. Overview The Dutch demissionary cabinet continues the current g ...

third Rutte cabinet from 10 August 2021 until 10 January 2022. He succeeded Stientje van Veldhoven, who had stepped down to move to another job. When an investigation found that pollution from the Tata Steel IJmuiden factory had resulted in adverse health effects for neighbors, Van Weyenberg said the factory would not have a future without major changes. Following his return to the parliament, he worked with

GroenLinks–PvdA GroenLinks–PvdA (), alternatively PvdA–GroenLinks, or GreenLeft–Labour in English, is an alliance between GroenLinks (GL) and the Labour Party (Netherlands), Labour Party (PvdA) in the Netherlands. The Electoral alliance, political allian ...

and the Christian Union on a set of measures to increase

purchasing power Purchasing power refers to the amount of products and services available for purchase with a certain currency unit. For example, if you took one unit of cash to a store in the 1950s, you could buy more products than you could now, showing that th ...

amongst a high inflation rate. In August 2023, ahead of a November general election, he announced he would not seek another term. He again filled a vacancy in the demissionary

fourth Rutte cabinet The fourth Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 10 January 2022 until 2 July 2024. The cabinet was a continuation of the third Rutte cabinet and was formed by the conservative liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( ...

starting 6 December 2023, becoming State Secretary for Culture and Media. He switched that position for

Minister of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfolio ...

on 12 January 2024 to succeed Sigrid Kaag. The succeeding Schoof cabinet was sworn in on 2 July 2024, bringing an end to Van Weyenberg's term.

Notes

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Weyenberg, Steven Van 1973 births Democrats 66 politicians Dutch civil servants Living people Politicians from Ghent People from Hoorn University of Amsterdam alumni 20th-century Dutch people Ministers of finance of the Netherlands State secretaries for education of the Netherlands Dutch MPs 2012–2017 Dutch MPs 2017–2021 Dutch MPs 2021–2023