Dutch gov't to cut nearly €5 bil., not €2.4 bil., from development aid budget by 2029

The Schoof I Cabinet’s cuts to the foreign aid budgets are even more drastic than announced. The government already announced that it will cut 2.4 billion from the budget aimed at diplomatic missions and helping developing countries. On top of that, the government changed how this budget is calculated, resulting in another cut of around 2.6 billion euros, the Reformatorisch Dagblad reported based on its own calculations, done after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “refused to provide transparency.”

The PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB announced in their coalition agreement that they would cut 2.4 billion euros from the development aid budget between 2027 and 2029. But last year, the Schoof Cabinet also decided not to let the budget grow along with the economy according to international standards, as it has been doing for decades.

The internationally agreed standard is to spend 0.7 percent of the gross national income on development cooperation. Last year, the Schoof government decided not to let the budget for development cooperation benefit from the new growth estimates in 2025. After severe criticism from the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate, the government agreed to link the development aid budget to economic growth again from next year, but in a new, simplified way that abandons the 0.7 percent standard. And the budget will not increase at all in 2025.

According to RD, the new way of linking the budget to economic growth will result in development aid increasing by over 200 million euros per year between 2026 and 2029, instead of 800 million euros per year with a link at the internationally agreed 0.7 percent.

Altogether, that means the development aid budget will be 2.6 billion euros smaller in 2029. That comes on top of the 2.4 billion euros in cuts the Cabinet already announced.