THE HAGUE, May 15 (Xinhua) –Dutch politicians on Wednesday expressed their dissatisfaction about the additional Dutch contribution of up to 500 million euros (644 million U.S. dollars) to the European budget this year.
A compromise has been made on May 6 during the talks between the European Union’s law-making institutions, namely the European Commission, Parliament and the Council of Ministers, that an additional 11.2 billion euros was agreed to throw into this year’s EU budget as part of a wider deal on finances for 2014 to 2020.
According to the compromise, the extra 11.2 billion would be delivered in two tranches, a first tranche of 7.3 billion immediately while a second one of 3.9 billion later in the year.
The Dutch share of contribution of 350 million can rise to half a billion given the total of the two tranches.
During a debate in the Dutch parliament on Wednesday, MPs of the governing parties VVD (Liberals) and PvdA (Labor) said not to accept the deal and asked for research into other solutions. “At this moment we do not agree,” said VVD MP Mark Verheijen. Michiel Servaes of coalition partner PvdA called it “very disappointing” that Brussels needed extra money.
“It’s too easy to just accept this,” Mark said.
“This simply means that we have half a billion less to spend elsewhere and in this time of crisis this is very problematic,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans.
The total amount of 7.3 billion euros represents a rise of 5.5 percent on the original budget of 133 billion euros for this year, bringing overall spending to 140.3 billion euros.
The Netherlands argued a decision on extra money needed was premature, because a deficit is not certain yet. The Netherlands tried to prevent the decision, but could not found a majority. The Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom were also against the additional contribution.
Despite the protests in the Dutch parliament, Dutch Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem stated that there is nothing more to do. “That money will be lost to the EU,” said Dijsselbloem. “There is no space to change the decision. We also benefited sometimes from EU budget changes in recent years and now we don’t.”
