Netherlands to cut on asylum, development aid to achieve NATO defense spending norm

The Dutch government is considering cuts to development cooperation and asylum to increase spending on defense gradually to meet the new NATO standard, caretaker Finance Minister Eelco Heinen (VVD) told BNR.

At the NATO summit in The Hague, the alliance agreed to increase defense spending to 3.5 percent of the member states’ economy, plus an additional 1.5 percent for defense-related activities. The Netherlands currently barely achieves the previous NATO standard of 2 percent.

The NATO countries have until 2035 to meet the new NATO standard. Heinen thinks the Netherlands will gradually reach the 3.5 percent target by changing expenditures within the budget. “So you’ll have to look every year: where can we cut back? We spend 450 billion euros a year. Don’t tell me you can’t cut back one or two billion annually.”

In the upcoming budget, Heinen is looking at cuts to development cooperation and asylum. The Dutch government has already implemented significant cuts to development cooperation, but Heinen thinks it can bear more.

Asylum is another possibility. “There are still a huge number of asylum seekers in emergency shelters. That’s also incredibly expensive. You could also get billions from that if you can limit the influx and encourage the outflow.”

The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) has confirmed that emergency shelters are incredibly expensive. The COA asked the government for structural funding, so that it could set up longer-term shelters that are much more cost-efficient.

Heinen added that the caretaker Cabinet has not yet made any firm decisions on how to pay for the additional defense spending. But he is dead set against doing so by increasing the national debt. “Because that is a short-term solution,” he said. “That’s a bit like saying, ‘I’m going to lose weight tomorrow, or I’m going to quit smoking tomorrow.’ We all know: If you don’t do it today, you won’t do it tomorrow either.”

The caretaker VVD Minister expects that the additional defense spending will be one of the major themes in the Cabinet formation talks after the elections in October. “I see that financial spokespersons realize that these are very large sums. Fortunately, everyone realizes that we need to invest in security. One way or another: we’ll have to find the money.”