Queen Beatrix should get a proper budget of €39m to covering all the costs of running the royal household – apart from security, foreign travel and maintaining her palaces, says former finance minister Gerrit Zalm.

Zalm was commissioned to look into the royal finances last year after it emerged that no one actually knew how much the royals cost and that spending was spread across seven government ministries.
Although the official figure for 2007 was €114m, a number of expenses have since proved to be wrong. For example, the defence ministry was paid for running the royal yacht De Groene Draeck.
Under Zalm’s proposals, the queen’s security will continue to be paid from the defence ministry budget, the palaces will be paid for by the housing ministry and foreign affairs will pick up the bill for state visits.