The Dutch government today said it remains critical of the European Commission’s proposal for a €750 billion recovery fund and vowed to “strongly push” with like-minded countries for changes.
In a letter to the Dutch parliament, Foreign Minister Stef Blok and Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra expressed “serious doubts about the proportionality of key elements of the proposed package” for the fund that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed May 27.
They said they were “critical” about the proposed structure under which the Commission would borrow money on the markets and then distribute it as a mix of loans and grants to countries. The letter said the government “will ask questions” about the legality of this mechanism.
The Netherlands also joins a host of other countries in questioning the Commission’s proposed methodology for distributing recovery funding.
“The size, distribution and broad scope of the facility cannot be traced back to the investment needs arising as a result of the crisis,” the ministers wrote.
The Hague is also sticking to earlier skepticism about using borrowed funding as grants. “There is no clear justification for providing grants (rather than loans)” under the proposed recovery fund, the minister noted.
They also expressed “reservations about the proposed increase in the own resources ceiling and its size,” and said that the ceiling should be “set in billions of euros instead of percentages of [gross national income].”
The letter also said “structural reforms” must be a clear condition for accessing the financial assistance, based on recommendations from the EU’s European Semester exercise.
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