Labour flip-flops on Navy submarine purchase

The PvdA wants Defense to eventually replace to four Navy submarines and buy new ones. Parliament Member Angelien Eijsink said this in Trouw today. Coalition partner VVD as well as CDA have long been advocates for this. In the election of 2012 the PvdA still wanted to abolish the submarine service, but the submarines were kept in the coalition government with the VVD. The PvdA now supports the outcome of an investigation into the future of the submarine service. "It is important that multi-year plans give certainty about what capabilities the Netherlands deliver within European cooperation. We thus support continuation to 2025", Eijsink said. According to her, the purchase of new submarines are inevitable. Early this month ti came to light that crew members of the submarine Zeeleeuw had been exposed to the carcinogenic asbestos for years. The clean up of this and other submarines will be very expensive.