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Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp in debate, Lower House (Source)
The Schoof cabinet has big intentions on defence and aid to Ukraine - billions in investments should bring the Netherlands up to NATO's two-percent standard. This was voted on last week at the Foreign Ministry's budget debate. In the background, however, crucial budgets for democratisation and rule-of-law support in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans are being eroded. As a result, the Netherlands' international goals for a secure and stable continent are actually getting further out of sight.
The Netherlands will make many cuts to international cooperation in the coming years - and this is no different in the area of democracy and rule of law in the shell of countries surrounding the EU. In recent years, funds Matra and Shiraka proved crucial for democratic and rule-of-law support in these regions. Matra - Social Transformation - focuses on EU candidate countries as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus. Shiraka - in Arabic partnership - focuses on the Middle East and North Africa. For three decades, the programmes have produced significant successes - of award-winning investigations into corruption to coalition building between different political parties . In addition, both programmes are an important source of knowledge and cooperation between the Dutch government and civil society organisations. The Matra programme is praised in many candidate countries and gives the Netherlands a lot of diplomatic leverage towards these countries. Several evaluations in recent years confirm this picture.
In line with the outline agreement, ministries have to cut 22 per cent of their budgets. This is no different for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Because of this imposition, over the next three years budgets for Matra and Shiraka more than halved. And this is in the face of great success with relatively small funds. In 2025, under the proposed budget, Matra and Shiraka will get 29.6 million - a pittance on a budget of over €12 billion.
These cuts to democratisation and rule of law support contrast sharply with the cabinet's intention to invest in our defence. We are investing billions in the armed forces and combining this with military support to Ukraine. The importance of adequate defence budgets is indisputable in times of great geopolitical uncertainty and threat, as is supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression. This aggression shows all the more that giving autocrats free rein only leads to more conflict and instability. Just investing in defence is not enough to achieve our goals around international security.
Where is the support for democrats, activists, good governance? The Netherlands wants EU candidate countries to comply with EU accession requirements - the so-called Copenhagen criteria. Netherlands preaches it 'strict and fair' dogma on these requirements - but in the meantime we are decimating support for this. We want to make agreements with countries in North Africa on migration, but this is proving difficult If some interlocutors structurally violate human rights. This only further increases instability around the EU. If the Dutch government wants to achieve its goals for a secure, sovereign and democratic Europe, investments in democratisation are as important as meeting NATO standards.
Budgets for democratisation and rule of law support are crumbs on the budget plate. And yet these funds make a huge difference to the Netherlands' international position, good governance and conflict prevention. Indifference only hits us harder in the long run. Therefore, cabinet: do not cut back on Matra and Shiraka, link defence investments to democracy investments and show that we stand for a strong Europe in all areas.
