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Dutch aid minister unveils new strategy: prevention through investment has priority

The Netherlands is allocating an extra €290m a year for emergency aid and the protection of refugees in areas close to their homes, aid minister Sigrid Kaag has told MPs. In addition, a further €130m a year will go into education for refugee children and to help countries where refugees are able to build up new lives, Kaag said in her briefing. The strategy, the minister said, sees 'development aid as an integral part of foreign policy, focused on combating the causes of poverty, migration, terror and climate change.' The aid will be concentrated on a number of focus regions: The Sahel, the Horn of Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. 'Greater efforts to boost stability, reduce poverty and promote economic growth that benefits everyone are also an investment in combating irregular migration and the human suffering that accompanies it,’ Kaag said. The strategy also includes a proactive trade and investment agenda, designed to help ensure that significantly more small and medium-sized enterprises, including startups, become active internationally, the minister said. ‘A greater focus on prevention is desperately needed,’ Kaag said. ‘Greater efforts now will mean less human suffering in the future, and it will save billions in emergency aid, reception in the region of origin and reconstruction. That’s better for the world and better for the Netherlands.’ Read the summary, in English More >

Amsterdam mayor job still up for grabs

Applications for the job of mayor of Amsterdam are to be reopened because not enough suitable candidates have come forward, the committee in charge of appointing the mayor has said. In total, 29 people had applied for the job, including nine women, but only four of the candidates had worked full time in a public function. The committee has now decided to reopen applications until June 2, in the hope of attracting more suitable candidates to choose from. The official job description called for a mayor with lots of management experience, a sense of humour and someone who is able to express their vision clearly. They must also be open to society, keen to bridge the gap between politicians and the man in the street, and a quick thinker. Mayors are not chosen by direct vote in the Netherlands. The council draws up a shortlist based on open applications and then the king’s commissioner in Noord Holland will interview the candidates. The full council then debates the commissioner’s findings and picks its front-runner. if all goes according to plan, the new mayor will then be formally appointed by the king, and sworn in. The committee now hopes to have this process completed before the summer break. More >

Heineken delivery service under fire

Amsterdam-based brewer Heineken has launched a scheme to reach the part of the market other beers don’t and this has hit a sour note at Amsterdam city council as well as in the catering trade, which calls the move unfair competition. The brewing giant is launching a delivery service of six-packs of beer plus snacks and crisps 'to your home, in the park on on a boat', via a special app and says no minimum order is necessary. But the head of the Dutch alcohol institute STAP says the 'beer courier' goes against the government's aim to limit alcohol consumption. Stap director Wim van Dalen told the Parool said: ‘The biggest problem is that this service is coming about just when alcohol is already available practically everywhere.’ Outgoing alderman Eric van der Burg told the Parool that Heineken's plan will increase the risk of alcohol abuse and over-consumption. The catering lobby group Horeca Nederland is also furious about the plan, and says Heineken is breaking the law because cafes and restaurants are not allowed to deliver alcohol to customers. More >

Wilders 'fewer Moroccan' appeal case delay

The judges in Geert Wilders 'fewer Moroccans' appeal court trial are to be replaced after Wilders' legal team successfully applied to have them removed. This means the appeal, which started on Thursday and should have run for 11 days, will now be delayed while new judges are appointed and brought up to speed. Wilders had wanted to delay the trial so his legal team could carry out more research into the decision not to prosecute D66 leader Alexander Pechtold for comments he made about Russians. Wilders claims there are parallels between the two cases. The court refused the request, leading Wilders' legal team to challenge their impartiality. A special chamber of judges ruled on Friday that that decision not to give Wilders more time to look into the Pechtold decision was not properly justified and ordered the judges to be removed. Wilders' lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops wants to use the Pechtold case to show that the public prosecution department is biased about whom it chooses to prosecute. The public prosecution department said earlier this year it would not take action against the D66 leader for saying he had never met a Russian 'who corrects his mistakes himself' even though several complaints were made against him. 2014 The 'fewer Moroccans' case dates back to 2014 when Wilders asked a roomful of supporters if they wanted to have ‘more or fewer’ Moroccans in the country. When the crowd shouted back: ‘Fewer, fewer,’ Wilders responded: ‘We’ll take care of that.’ In December 2016, Wilders was found guilty of inciting discrimination against Dutch Moroccans. A panel of three judges said Wilders’s comments were ‘demeaning and insulting to the Moroccan population’. However, the court decided not to fine or sentence Wilders on the basis that a criminal conviction was sufficient punishment in itself. More >

Coal power plant closure moved to 2024

The date for the closure of the two oldest coal-fired electricity plants in the Netherlands has been moved up by six years to 2024, economic affairs minister Eric Wiebes has said, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Saturday. The remaining three coal-fired power plants must be shuttered or be converted to other fuels by the original date in 2030, Wiebes, who has climate in his portfolio, added. RWE, owner of two of the coal-fired plants, said it was taken completely by surprise at the move and is considering taking legal steps. Wiebes has acted quickly in forbidding the use of coal for electricity generation and backs the use of biomass as a fuel. The two oldest coal-fired plants are the Hemweg-8 in Amsterdam owed by Nuon and RWE’s Amercentrale in Geertruidenberg, Noord-Brabant province. Nuon said earlier it is prepared to close the Hemweg plant by 2024 if a good social plan for workers is in place. More >

White collar union criticises 30% rule cut

The Dutch professional workers union VCP has issued a statement calling for a transition period for international workers who will be hit by the government's plan to cut the 30% ruling from eight to five years. The measure can lead to a sudden cut in income of 15% to 20% for people who suddenly find they no longer qualify for the tax break, the union says. 'This measure will scare of expats who might come to the Netherlands in the future, which is bad for the exchange of expertise and bad for Dutch employment,' chairman Nic van Holstein said. 'It also damages trust in the Dutch government. Earlier this week, the International Community Advisory Panel published research showing that the change will have a major impact on the country's reputation and will leave thousands of people thousand of euros a month worse off. Some 56% of the expats who had taken part in the online ICAP survey by Tuesday said the proposal had damaged their trust in the government while 32% said the change made it likely they would not work in the Netherlands for more than five years, despite having originally planned to stay longer. Law suit Tax advisory group Grant Thornton has also warned that the government will face a string of lawsuits if it presses ahead with the change. We are already looking at the legal options to fight this plan,' spokesman Brian James told the Telegraaf. 'You can assume that there will be legal action.' The 30% ruling is a tax break which international workers can benefit from if they lived at least 150 km from the Dutch border before moving to the Netherlands and if they meet certain salary and skill requirements. It is widely used by Dutch companies and universities to bring in foreign staff for positions that they have been unable to fill locally. A petition calling for a government rethink has been signed by almost 26,000 people so far. Universities The Dutch universities association VSNU told DutchNews.nl it is writing to junior finance minister Menno Snel urging him to rethink the plan, which will cut thousands of euros a year from expat academics’ income. ‘A professor here on a four-year contract will not be able to take a second four-year term if this goes through,’ he said. ‘The 30% ruling as it now stands has a very positive impact on academia, which is international anyway,’ he said. Employers Employers organisations VNO-NCW and MKB-Nederland have described the plan as ‘not good’ and say the measure will make the Netherlands less attractive compared with other foreign countries. DutchNews.nl has contacted all the political parties represented in parliament for their comments. More >

MH17 investors to publish new report

The team investigating the downing of flight MH217 in 2014 will publish an interim report on Thursday as well as a renewed call for public assistance in tracking down the likely perpetrators, according to broadcaster NOS. However, the interim report will not make any new claims about possible suspects, nor will it give any information about the result of earlier calls for public help, NOS said. All 298 people on board flight MH17 were killed when it was struck by a missile on July 17, 2014, and crashed into fields in eastern Ukraine. Two-thirds of the passengers on the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were Dutch. The JIT’s preliminary investigations concluded in 2016 that the plane was shot down from Ukrainian farmland by a BUK missile ‘controlled by pro-Russian fighters’. That conclusion has been disputed by Russia, which claims that Ukrainian fighters were responsible. The case will be brought in the Dutch courts after Russia blocked an attempt to take it to a United Nations tribunal. The head of the investigation team, Fred Westerbeke, said last October Dutch prosecutors may be ready to start the trial of those accused of shooting down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 within months. Westerbeke told Novaja Gazeta a number of suspects were in the frame but Dutch law prevented him from naming names. ‘We will disclose everything when this investigation is over, and we will give the names at the trial,’ he said. More >

Groningen sheep farmer cries wolf, twice

Some thirty sheep are thought to have been killed by wolves in the north of the country since March, the Dagblad van het Noorden reports. Eleven were killed in Groningen over two consecutive nights earlier this week after a sighting of a wolf in Den Ilp, close to Ansum where the dead animals were found. It has not yet been established if a wolf killed these sheep but according to sheep farmer Lourens Krol a wolf was the likely culprit. ‘It can’t have been a dog. This one went for the throat and the heart. He came twice and they tell me that hardly ever happens? Tonight my sheep will be behind a fence near the house,’ he told the Telegraaf. Krol, who will be fully compensated for the loss of his animals, says it is impossible to fence off an area of 46 hectares to protect the sheep. ‘I would rather shoot the wolf. It isn’t right to keep having to claim for damages.’ the paper quotes him as saying. The wolf has been making a comeback in Europe and although wolf monitoring site Wolven in Nederland says there would be room in the Netherlands for about 20 wolf packs, its return has not been welcomed by farmers. Protected status The animal, which is not established as yet in this country, has protected status in the EU but according to the Telegraaf pressure on Brussels decision makers is mounting to allow the animals to be shot. Maurice la Haye of Wolven in Nederland says wolves from Eastern Europe have been making their way to the Netherlands and farmers have to adapt. It is possible to teach wolves to leave sheep alone, La Haye claims, by putting the sheep inside a barn or behind an electrified fence.’ He blames the fact that the alleged wolf came back for seconds on the removal of the cadavers. ‘A wolf can live for a week on one sheep. It’s only natural it came back for more when it found the food gone.’ The first confirmed sighting of a wolf in the Netherlands in 150 years was registered in March 2015 in Drenthe and Groningen when a wolf from Niedersachsen briefly crossed the border. In 2013 a dead wolf was found near Luttelgeest in the Noordoostpolder which turned out to be from Eastern Europe. The animal had been dumped. More >

Maastricht, Twente face court over English

A lobby group campaigning for better education in the Netherlands is taking Maastricht and Twente universities to court for offering too many degree courses in English. The Beter Onderwijs Nederland association says the two universities are breaking the law because they are offering English language courses without good reason to do so. The schools inspectorate are also being taken to court by BON for failing to take action against the two universities. 'The law states explicitly that educational establishments should promote Dutch language skills,' chairman Ad Verbrugge told the Volkskrant. 'Students should learn to express themselves as precisely as possible in Dutch. This is an essential part of academic learning.' BON has singled out Maastricht and Twente because they have gone 'much too far' in introducing English, Verbrugge said. The use of English in Dutch higher education has become a political hot potato and education minister Ingrid van Engelshoven has promised to publish her vision in June. In a joint paper published on Monday, the Netherlands’ higher education institutions said the number of courses given in English should be capped in an attempt to contain the growing number of international students. An upper limit would allow the sector to ensure universities remained accessible to Dutch students, the VNSU said. Fees The institutions also said that matriculation and course fees for students from outside the European Union should be raised. Students from EU countries have the right to pay the equivalent fees to their Dutch counterparts, currently around €2,000. In August 2016, the Volkskrant reported that 60% of the 1,632 different degree courses at the country’s 13 universities are now in English. When it comes to master’s degrees, just 30% are taught in Dutch and three universities only offer master’s degrees in English. Some 75,000 foreign students are currently studying at Dutch universities and hbo colleges, accounting for around 10% of the total student body. Students from Germany, China, Indonesia, Poland and Belgium are most likely to stay in the Netherlands to work after they graduate. More >

Child, taken from foster home, is safe

The five-year-old girl who was snatched from her foster family by her biological mother on Sunday evening is no longer officially missing, police said on Friday. Deimante Zasytyteis now living with her mother and other family members in Lithuania and the girl is not in physical danger, police said. The girl was taken from the foster family’s home in Maastricht and driven away in a silver car at around 10.20pm on Sunday. Social workers and the public prosecution department are now trying to get in contact with the family and decide what steps to take next. In total 288 children in the Netherlands were reported kidnapped and taken abroad by a parent last year, according to new official figures published this week. Most children were taken to Poland and Germany, followed by Belgium, the UK, Turkey and Morocco. In 70% of cases, the child was taken by their mother. More >

Douglas: new dress code after media storm

Perfume seller Douglas which had been criticised on social media for moving a sales assistant who started wearing a headscarf out of the public eye, has changed its dress code, RTL Nieuws reported on Friday. The commotion arose when a Douglas shop in Leeuwarden told one of its sales staff, who had decided to start wearing a scarf, to work elsewhere in the shop. ‘Our sales staff is not allowed to wear clothing which expresses political, philosophical or religious convictions,’ Douglas Nederland said earlier in a statement, defending its policy on the grounds of 'neutrality'. However, some commentators on social media called for a boycott and many said Douglas is inconsistent because its advertising targets Muslims around the celebration of Eid al-Fitr. Douglas has announced it will 'adapt its dress code' and said it was never its intention to cause hurt to people. The European Court of Justice ruled last year that companies can stop staff from wearing headscarves as long as this is based on company rules stating that 'visible signs denoting political, philosophical and religious convictions' are not allowed. More >

Dutch aid minister unveils new strategy: prevention through investment has priority

Amsterdam mayor job still up for grabs

Heineken delivery service under fire

Wilders 'fewer Moroccan' appeal case delay

Coal power plant closure moved to 2024

MH17 investors to publish new report

Child, taken from foster home, is safe

Douglas: new dress code after media storm

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