Finance minister Eelco Heinen has said the vote in parliament against the European Union’s proposed €800 million rearmament plan will be included in details on how to fund the extra military spending.

MPs voted by 73 to 71 for a motion opposing the plan, announced by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen last week, to raise the money by relaxing the EU’s budget deficit rules and a €150 million collective loan scheme.

Three of the four parties in the Dutch coalition backed the motion, tabled by one-man right-wing party JA21, with the VVD the only one to support the package.

The Netherlands cannot block the plan because prime minister Dick Schoof voted in favour of it at last week’s European summit, but the vote will weaken the Dutch government’s position when it comes to fleshing out the details.

The cabinet’s irritation was evident from the terse response that followed Tuesday’s vote. “The cabinet has taken note of the Eerdmans motion relating to the chairman of the European Commission’s ideas for strengthening European defence (REARM),” it said. “The cabinet will inform parliament ahead of the debate on the European Council on March 20 and 21.”

Vote “premature”

Heinen, a VVD minister, told RTL Z that the rejection was premature. “There isn’t a plan of any kind yet,” he said. “This is based on a press release by the European Commission.

“We have always said: wait for the plans and look at the terms that the Netherlands has set. It say we are not sending extra taxpayers’ money to other countries, that we are maintaining the budget rules, and that debt sustainability is important.”

Frans Timmermans, leader of the opposition GroenLinks-PvdA alliance, said the three coalition partners had “thrown the prime minister under the bus,” while former defence minister Kajsa Ollongren told Nieuwsuur: “This is very bad for the Netherlands’ position internationally and in Europe.”

Ollongren said: “The Netherlands has already voted for the plan, but now the other countries are hearing that the Dutch parliament has turned against it, which will raise the question: does the Netherlands want this or not?”

“Frugal” coalition

Member states will be able to raise an extra €650 million in military spending if Von der Leyen’s idea of raising the budget deficit threshold to 4.5% of GDP is endorsed by finance ministers.

The remaining €150 million would be funded by a loan scheme secured against unused funds inn the EU budget, commonly known as Eurobonds.

During the coronavirus pandemic the Netherlands was part of a group of “frugal” nations within the EU, along with Germany, Sweden, Austria and Denmark, who opposed the use of Eurobonds. But all the other nations are now in favour of funding a rapid increase in defence spending through borrowing.

The frugal sentiment was evident in the response of parties that opposed the plan, but also those that supported it.

Pieter Omtzigt, of coalition party NSC, said his party backed Ukraine to the hilt, but Eurobonds were the wrong instrument for funding defence spending.

Hands tied

“It increases the risk of a new and deep debt crisis,” Omtzigt said. “That threatens our basic financial stability, which would leave countries in no position to help Ukraine further.”

Heinen also said he “shared the concerns” of parties about the risk of saddling EU nations with more debt. “I understand those concerns very well, but that’s not what was being voted on.”

VVD leader Dilan Yesilgöz said her party backed the ReArm Europe plan despite its misgivings about the use of debt funding. “We shouldn’t send the cabinet into these talks with its hands tied,” she said.

“It gives you no credibility as a country and puts the cabinet in an impossible position.”