ANPHhelicopters during the Falcon Autumn military exercise. Army and air force soldiers and thirty-five helicopters conduct large-scale airborne operations.
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 02:58
The Dutch armed forces will have billions more to spend in the coming years. During the discussion of the defense budget in the House of Representatives this week, many parties will say that it is necessary to spend extra money on defense in these uncertain times.
The budget for this year has already been considerably increased, to more than 21 billion euros. This means that for the first time the Netherlands is close to the NATO standard, which states that member states must spend two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. To fully achieve the standard, the Netherlands would have to spend an additional two billion per year on defense.
Most parties believe that investments are needed after years of cutbacks. “We want to be a good, reliable ally,” says MP Jimme Nordkamp of GroenLinks-PvdA. “Given the tensions in the world, it is necessary to scale up the armed forces.”
Bad state
According to soldiers and other experts, the Dutch armed forces are currently in poor condition. The military is unable to defend Dutch territory, and only half of the available units are ready to be deployed, it became apparent in 2022.
The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have once again forced MPs to face the facts. Many parties would prefer to enshrine the NATO standard in law. In this way, they want to prevent further cuts when the threat decreases. The largest party in the House of Representatives, the PVV, does not believe this is necessary so far.
NSC, one of the parties with which the PVV is negotiating a new cabinet, wants to go even further than the NATO standard. “If the armed forces then submit another question to us, we will think about it,” says MP Isa Kahraman.
Staff
He, like other MPs, foresees a problem: you can increase the budget, but purchasing helicopters, tanks or submarines takes time. And finding enough staff is also difficult. There is a danger that much of the extra money will remain on the table for a long time.
Kahraman: “You can buy all kinds of new weapon systems, but if we don’t have soldiers to operate them, they won’t be of much use to us.”
More young people
VVD MP Silvio Erkens makes a proposal to do something about the staff shortage. He wants to increase the number of young people who voluntarily work for Defense in the context of the so-called service year from a thousand to at least four thousand per year.
To get more young people interested, all 18-year-olds should be sent a survey about the year of service. According to Erkens, this is very successful in Sweden. GroenLinks-PvdA, NSC, D66, CDA, Volt, ChristenUnie and SGP support his motion and that is a majority.
2024-02-06 01:58:25
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