Still no agreement on spring budget update; Last-chance talks today
After another day of negotiations on Monday, the coalition parties and Cabinet still haven’t reached an agreement on the spring memorandum, the annual adjustment of the national budget. The talks will continue on Tuesday. An agreement must be reached today, NSC and BBB negotiators told NOS on their way out of the talks on Monday.
The Council of Ministers must discuss the spring memorandum during their weekly meeting on Thursday, held a day early this week due to the Easter holiday on Friday. That means an agreement must be reached by Tuesday evening, so that the plans can be worked out on Wednesday and the Ministers can discuss them on Thursday.
NSC MP Nicolien van Vroonhoven said that the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB did not make “much progress” on Monday. “The distances are great. There are many wishes, but the question is: how are we going to pay for that?” she said. “I think that everyone will have to take steps on Tuesday.”
The four government parties have different wishlists of what to achieve with the budget. Everyone wants to lower the energy bill for citizens. The VVD also wants extra money for the armed forces. The PVV wants to lower rents and VAT on groceries. The BBB wants extra money for the nitrogen approach. The Cabinet also has a wish list, including extra money to tackle the shortage of cells and staff in prisons and to achieve the climate goals. All in all, it involves billions of euros.
According to Van Vroonhoven, the atmosphere at the negotiation table is friendly and calm, with everyone behaving themselves, unlike some other recent meetings.
The only other negotiator to speak to the press after Monday’s meeting was BBB parliamentarian Henk Vermeer. He spoke of “good and solid discussions” and also stressed that an agreement must be reached on Tuesday. "It really has to go to the Council of Ministers in the evening." The other negotiators held their tongues.
