Bad news all around in the first Dutch budget since the start of the crisis. Getting the economy back on track will mean painful reforms for years to come. Everyone will feel the hurt including the government itself, which says it has to 'review' its priorities. But at what cost to the Netherlands' position in the world?
 
Something people may find difficult to stomach about the Dutch government's budget plans is that the worst sacrifices will come only after the actual crisis is over. That's when the government needs to get serious about reducing the burgeoning national deficit. So from 2011, it wants to cut back at least 35 billion euros.
 
Change? Yes we must!
The cuts mean almost everyone will have less money to spend, although not immediately. Another eyecatching but not unexpected measure is raising the retirement age from 65 to 67. But measures such as these are only half the story.
 

To make the Netherlands futureproof, Queen Beatrix explained in her traditional speech from the throne, a radical rethink is needed. "An exceptionally challenging task, but not impossible."
 
Ahead of that broader review, the budget for next year includes substantial cuts across most departments. These immediate cuts also affect some policy areas that have been among the Netherlands' main priorities on the world stage.
 
Defence and development
In 2010, the Defence department will have to compensate for a hole in its budget of 189 million euros caused by the peace mission in Afghanistan among other things. On top of that, it has to contribute 65 million euros to the overall fight for economic recovery.
 
Defence minister Eimert van Middelkoop said he'll have to introduce painful measures, such as closing the soldiers' mess in barracks after nightfall - which is unlikely to go down well with Dutch troops.
 
More radical are the cuts to the Development budget: the department will have to make do with more than ten per cent less next year: six hundred million euros. Development minister Bert Koenders says he will try to spare the poorest and most "fragile" countries.
 

Having your cake and eating it?
Elaborating on the budget in her speech from the throne, Queen Beatrix denied that these cuts will make the Dutch more inward-looking and less concerned with the rest of the world. On the contrary, she said: the Netherlands "has a lot to offer" in fields such as the fight against poverty, climate change and peace missions.
 
The cuts to the defence budget won't affect the peace mission in Afghanistan. And despite the radical cuts to the development aid budget, the Netherlands will still be able to meet its promise of investing 0.8 per cent of its GDP. That's because the Dutch GDP has also shrunk, due to the crisis.
 
An important key to combining the need for budget cuts with the Netherlands' international ambitions is more emphasis on working within existing frameworks such as the G20 group and the EU, and less on separate Dutch initiatives. 

Knowledge and innovation
The same realism also pervades the Dutch government's other 'ambitions', particularly its vow to invest in the 'knowledge economy' and in innovation.
 
What's new is that these are no longer goals to be pursued for their own sake. Like everything and anyone else, they too will have to pay their way in the years to come by contributing to long-term economic recovery. As Queen Beatrix said at the end of her speech from the throne: "we all share the responsibility."