Halving development aid

First the Dutch right-wing populist parties called for development aid to be halved and now the main right-wing liberal opposition party People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) has followed suit. They want aid to be cut down to the same level as in the 15 wealthiest EU states. The political weekly Elsevier writes: "This is a good plan. With many aid projects one has absolutely no certainty that they work. ... Given these circumstances it is particularly odd that the Netherlands always wants to be the world champion in development aid and at the same time spends tens of millions on subsidising PR campaigns aimed at persuading the country's citizens to support the high amounts spent on aid. All this aid has not only led to the poor countries becoming dependent on funding from abroad and thus remaining poor but also made the Netherlands poorer because in the past six months almost 100 billion euros worth of taxpayers money has been spirited out of the country."

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