The new Dutch government is to be sworn in on July 2, 2024, in front of the king in The Hague. Following the cabinet formation, there has been some controversy about the coalition agreement and how it could impact internationals living in the Netherlands. Here’s what we know about the new Dutch cabinet.
In the 26-page agreement, the right-wing coalition made up of four cooperating parties, namely the PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB, agreed to focus on several key areas. The following are some of the points that could affect internationals who work and study in the Netherlands:
The coalition is aiming for the strictest asylum package ever with plans to curb the number of refugees entering the country, limit the number of international students, reduce the number of university courses taught in English and increase tuition fees for non-EU students.
Plans to decrease levels of other migration are also on the table with measures such as the introduction of extra rules to cover foreign workers and making it harder to naturalise by increasing the standard language level requirement from A2 to B1 level Dutch. These plans would also only allow naturalisation after 10 years of living in the Netherlands instead of the current five.
The four parties have agreed to reduce the health insurance deductible by more than half. This means that the mandatory “own risk” amount (eigen risico) could change from 385 euros per year to just 165 euros per year.
To create labour market security, the coalition wants to introduce an additional income tax bracket. They also want to improve debt assistance and make childcare almost free.
Under the coalition agreement, the parties want 100.000 new homes to be built per year and more land to be made available for construction. They also want to limit increasing rental prices, especially when it comes to social housing and want at least 30 percent of new housing construction to be for social housing.
When it comes to infrastructure, the agreement states the intention to make the speed limit 130 kilometres per hour on roads “where possible”. There are also plans to improve accessibility to rural areas by creating more bus and train connections, such as the one proposed between Lelystad and Groningen.
The new cabinet, consisting of the Dutch Prime Minister, 15 ministers and 13 state secretaries, will get together to draw up the government’s policy statement containing the most important parts of the coalition agreement. The Prime Minister, which will be Dick Schoof in this instance, will deliver the statement to the House of Representatives, which will then debate about the content of the statement.
After the new cabinet has gotten its vote of confidence from the House of Representatives, the two groups will work together and discuss the various plans before they are put into practice. Any new laws also need to go through the Senate, so it is not a given that all the plans from the Dutch government will become a reality.