Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof confirmed on Friday that his predecessor, current NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, wants an increased standard for defense spending to come into effect in 2032. It is the first time that a timetable for the new NATO standard has been made public, though Rutte has spoken on other occasions to indicate the importance of boosting spending within the military alliance by 2032.
Schoof spoke on Friday at his press conference after the regular weekly Council of Ministers meeting. Rutte also spoke on Friday after his meeting with new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
As it stands, the agreement is that NATO member states have to spend 2 percent of their GDP on their country’s defense. This has been the case since it was agreed in 2014 at the NATO Summit in Wales. Member states were given 10 years to reach this target with 22 out of the 32 member states still having yet to reach the standard.
Reuters first reported recently that Rutte wants allied countries to increase their military expenditure to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2032. In addition, another 1.5 percent would have to be spent on infrastructure and cybersecurity. This is also a goal that he wants to see achieved by 2032. He reportedly wrote to member states last week to push for an announcement to commit to the new standard during the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague.
Rutte refused to confirm the numbers during his press conference with Merz, but he explained his decision to raise the defense spending. "To be able to defend ourselves in five years’ time and to keep the deterrence and defense at the level we need, we must not only to spend much more, but also build a defense industrial base across the Atlantic, across the whole Euro-Atlantic area, including the United States and Canada, and all the European countries in NATO. It’s crucial.”
Speaking after his Cabinet meeting, Schoof said most of his minister' involved in this decision have already held discussions about the NATO General Secretary's wishes. The discussion will continue in the coming weeks to determine the Netherlands' commitment to the NATO summit. The countries of the alliance must agree on the new standard at the summit in the end of June.
Schoof has also publicly said on several occasions that he feels the country needs an increase in defense spending. "I have always been very clear about this. But that does not mean that you immediately say yes to the first letter from the Secretary General of NATO. We need to have discussions about this," said the prime minister.
Rutte mentioned the threat of Russia as one of the reasons that the NATO member states must arm themselves. “The Russians are producing in three months in ammunition, what the whole of NATO, which is 25 times bigger than Russia, in terms of the overall economy, is producing in a year. So that’s not sustainable. So this is both spending and more production.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded that the NATO member states spend 5 percent of their GDP on their defense. Sources close to the situation told Reuters that the move by Rutte is an attempt to appease Trump ahead of the NATO Summit in The Hague in June, while not caving in to his demands, which many have said is economically unviable.
The U.S. recently announced that it will no longer be focused on protecting the European continent. Trump has said in the past that he will not come to the aid of NATO members if they have not spent enough money on their defense.
This would contradict Article 5 of the alliance, which states that an attack on one country is an attack on all countries. Schoof said that he is not concerned with the threat from the U.S. He claims they are still fully committed to to Article 5. He also said that he has no doubts that Trump will attend the summit in The Hague.
NATO sources are quick to say that member states have suggested various deadlines. There may also be an intermediate target.
A woman was arrested on Friday afternoon at Eindhoven Airport for making false claims that she had a bomb in her luggage while on a plane, a spokesperson for the Koninklijke Marechaussee confirmed. The incident led to the closure of the country’s second-largest airport, which lasted for about 30 minutes starting on Friday morning.
The woman suspected of making the threat is a 51-year-old who was sitting on a flight that was set to depart to Antalya, according to Omroep Brabant. The only scheduled departure to the Turkish resort city was operated by TUI Airlines, which took off at 11:55 a.m. instead of 10:25 a.m.
The woman’s suitcase was in the cargo hold of the Boeing 737, which was checked by an explosives expert. “We take every report seriously. In this case, it turned out not to be a bomb,” a spokesperson for the Marechaussee told Omroep Brabant.
Few details about the threat were disclosed by investigators, but the woman was being questioned on Friday afternoon. It was not yet clear who accused the woman of making statements about a bomb, nor the alleged motivation, Eindhovens Dagblad reported.
One RyanAir flight from Oporto was diverted to the airport in Weeze, Germany, as a result of the disruption caused by the threat and the ensuing investigation. In the two hours that followed, at least ten departing flights were running behind schedule, with delays ranging from a few minutes to several hours.
Several arriving flights faced relatively minor delays, according to the airport’s website. The airport’s schedule had largely returned to normal by 2 p.m., the spokesperson told Omroep Brabant.
Six rare 19th-century books by Russian literary giant Aleksandr Pushkin were stolen from the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) in 2023, the library announced, prompting a public appeal for help in their recovery. The missing volumes are first editions, considered invaluable cultural heritage items.
Law enforcement agencies believe the theft may be connected to a Georgian organized crime group specializing in stealing rare books from libraries across Europe. Several suspects have been arrested in connection to these crimes, but the Pushkin books remain missing.
The stolen works include first editions of "Ruslan i Ljumila," "Graf Nulin," "Poltava," "Boris Godunov," "Cygany," and "Kavkazskij plennik". The KB has provided detailed information about the books, including their original signatures and any unique markings, to aid in identification.
According to Europol, this criminal group was responsible for the theft of at least 170 books from national and historical libraries in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Switzerland between 2022 and 2023. The total value of the stolen books is estimated at 2.5 million euros, but their cultural significance is considered "of unmeasurable patrimonial loss to society".
The thieves often targeted first editions of works by Russian writers like Pushkin and Nikolai Gogol. Their methods varied, ranging from sophisticated replacements of the original books with high-quality counterfeits to more direct break-ins. "Experts have established that the copies were of outstanding quality," according to Europol. In some instances, stolen books were sold via auction houses in St. Petersburg and Moscow, making recovery nearly impossible.
The investigation into the thefts was an international effort, involving law enforcement agencies across Europe and coordinated by Europol and Eurojust. Wilma van Wezenbeek, General Director of the KB, emphasized the importance of this collaboration, stating, "It is important that also this kind of incidents are discussed openly, as soon as the police investigation allows it".
The National Library of the Netherlands (KB) has provided detailed information about the stolen Pushkin books to aid in their recovery. These details include the books' titles, publication years, KB signatures, and any unique characteristics such as handwritten notes. The library hopes that by making this information public, "internet detectives" and book enthusiasts might be able to spot the missing volumes.
"In the case of the theft that affected us, we have been reluctant until now," said Van Wezenbeek, explaining the library's initial decision not to publicize the incident. "The first priority is of course that the security leak has to be sealed, but I also noticed that we did not share the news about this theft as widely as we could have".
The KB is urging the public to come forward with any information that may lead to the recovery of the stolen books, expressing their desire to return the works to their rightful place in the national collection.
Road users who can avoid Amsterdam and Utrecht in the coming weeks are advised to do so. The A1 from the Amsterdam ring road A10 toward the east of the country and the A12 between Veenendaal and Utrecht are both closing for roadworks and will almost certainly cause traffic chaos, RTL Nieuws reports.
Anyone wanting to travel from the east of the Netherlands to Amsterdam can expect bumper-to-bumper traffic in the coming weeks. The A1 will be closed from the Diemen Junction to the Watergraafsmeer junction for weeks. The A12 is also closed earlier on the route, from Arnhem to Utrecht.
And a 30-kilometer stretch of the A2 from Veenendaal to Utrecht will be closed for nine days. Detouring will easily cost an extra hour of travel time, according to RTL Nieuws.
Rijkswaterstaat, the department responsible for road maintenance, understands that motorists will be frustrated. “A lot of maintenance is needed. There are really bad parts of the asphalt, and you don’t want a motorway to have to close unexpectedly without warning. Then you have bigger problems to deal with,” Niels van den Brink of the Rijkswaterstaat told RTL.
The public works department tries to carry out roadworks over weekends and at night as much as it can, but that is not always possible. “There are too few weekends in the year to carry out all the necessary work. So much has to be done, and this is more efficient,” Van den Brink said.
The following highways will be closed for roadworks in the coming weeks
Last year, the Dutch gross domestic product (GDP) per resident was 63,000 euros, putting the Netherlands in fourth place for material prosperity in the European Union, Statistics Netherlands and Eurostat reported. The Netherlands was also in fourth place in 2023. The Dutch GDP per capita is over 1.5 times higher than the EU average (€39,700).
Luxembourg (€126,900) has the highest GDP per capita due to the large number of financial institutions in the country, and because many people work in Luxembourg but do not live there. Ireland (€99,100), where many foreign multinationals are based, came in second place, followed by Denmark (€66,400) and the Netherlands. Bulgaria has the lowest GDP per capita in the EU at 16,100 euros.
Corrected for price changes, the Netherlands’ GDP per capita was 0.3 percent higher in 2024 than a year earlier. The economic growth was greater than population growth, increasing the GDP per capita. In the EU, the GDP per capita increased by 0.8 percent.
Another way to measure material prosperity is actual individual consumption per inhabitant, corrected for the price level. This consists of households’ consumer spending, and the consumption of non-profit organizations, households, and the government. “This figure considers differences in the financing of certain provisions, such as the financing of the healthcare system, between countries,” CBS said.
The actual individual consumption in the Netherlands was 32,000 euros last year, putting our country in second place in the EU after Luxembourg. In the EU, actual individual consumption is over 26,000 euros.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof wishes the new Pope Leo XIV “much strength and wisdom with his important and responsible mission.” The Prime Minister said this on X after the American Cardinal Robert Prevost (69) was elected as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.
“It is wonderful news that a new Pope has been elected so quickly. A special moment for the Catholic world community and beyond,” the Prime Minister said.
The Dutch newspapers paid a lot of attention to Pope Leo XIV on Friday, describing the first American Pope as a leader who would largely follow the policy of Pope Francis but was a lot more reserved than his predecessor.
Trouw reports on the atmosphere of St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, where believers took selfies “in a festival atmosphere” with the famous chimney in the background, hugged each other when white smoke came out of it, and cheered for the first American Pope. According to the newspaper, the new pope is “a listener who transcends borders.”
De Telegraaf writes that Robert Prevost is known as “a pragmatic bridge builder between different cultures and church traditions” who is not overly conservative or progressive.
Leo XIV’s practical attitude is also reflected in the reporting of the Nederlands Dagblad, which describes the American as “a pragmatic administrator and a social pope who will continue the synodal process of Pope Francis,” with which the newspaper refers to Francis’ efforts to conduct more consultation with the church.
FD called Leo XIV “an effective manager, reserved, and less inclined to improvise than Francis.” The new pope will not break with Francis’ empathetic course, the newspaper writes, but in the past has been less open about gender and sexuality than his predecessor.
Pope Leo XIV spent most of his adult life in Peru but is originally from Chicago, USA. In his native country, the new pope would be able to “bridge the division between conservative and progressive movements,” according to the AD.
NRC and the Volkskrant emphasize that the American pope does not seem to be a great supporter of Donald Trump. NRC writes about the good relationship that Leo XIV has with the American cardinal Blaise Cupich, “Who is very far removed from the American president.” De Volkskrant writes: “The big question is whether the amiable new pope will be able to calm down Russian leader Vladimir Putin and American president Donald Trump with the help of Vatican soft power.”
The Contact Roman Catholics says it has every confidence in the new pope. “I am pleased that the 133 cardinals have come to a broadly supported choice so quickly. That shows that people have a lot of confidence in this new pope,” said priest Geertjan van Rossem, spiritual advisor to the association.
Van Rossem also pointed to the versatile background of the new pope. "He also makes a stable, calm and strong impression during his first appearance. And his message of world peace and the emphasis on God's love for every person, and his continuity with Pope Francis about a synodal church with attention to social issues and with openness to what is happening in the world, as Pope Leo XIII did more than a century ago, are encouraging."
