The Dutch royal family has overtaken that of Britain to become the most expensive in western Europe, according to annual research by Belgian professor Herman Matthijs.

In total, queen Beatrix and her children cost the Netherlands €39.4m, including €18m in personal costs, RTL news quotes Matthijs as saying.
This is four times the cost of keeping the Spanish royal family, RTL said. Britain used to top the ranking but queen Elizabeth’s cost to the taxpayer has gone down from €45.6m to €38.2m, Matthijs calculates.
The figures do not include the cost of security.
The most expensive head of state is the French president who costs France €112m in income, and personnel.
Crisis
Yesterday it emerged queen Beatrix has no plans to follow the example of Spanish king Juan Carlos and hand back some of her salary because of the economic crisis.
The state information service RVD said the queen sees ‘no reason’ to reduce the €830,000 annual allowance she receives from the state for carrying out her duties.
The full report (Dutch)