Amsterdam city council on Thursday evening voted in favour of the controversial plan to build bicycle-pedestrian bridge linking the city centre with its fast-growing northern flank. The Javafietsbrug will cross the busy IJ waterway at Java island to the east of the central rail station, news website Nu.nl reported on Friday. The vote simultaneously opened a can of worms involving the many factions who favour a Java island crossing by tunnel. In fact, the city council is just about the only party involved which backs the bridge. The Java island project will be the first fixed link across the IJ. No official starting date has been set for the construction of the bridge, nor is there any firm idea of what it will look like. Projected costs are also rather vague at 'tens of millions' of euros. The transport department Rijkswaterstaat, which controls traffic on Dutch waterways, and caretaker infrastructure minister Melanie Schultz are the leading proponents of the tunnel scheme. And since they also control the funding of bridge and tunnel projects in the Netherlands they are not easily dismissed. 'The proposed bicycle bridge would have to be at least 11.35 metres above the surface of the water. It would be handy to have an electric bike on that bridge,' Schultz has said. Schultz also said the bridge would be a hindrance to shipping on the IJ, a viewpoint shared by the port authority which noted that bridges distort radar in foggy weather. Ironically the bridge would have to close several times an hour to allow the passage of ships and yachts higher than 11 metres.  More >

The four parties involved in talks to form a new Dutch coalition met for the last time on Wednesday, ahead of a two-week break. After marathon sessions on Monday and Tuesday, the leaders of the VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie got together for a final meeting on Wednesday afternoon. The party leaders have been reluctant to talk about progress. Prime minister and VVD leader Mark Rutte said as he arrived at Wednesday’s talks: ‘I hope that today we can count on going away for a few days. We are working hard.’ Christian Democrat leader Sybrand Buma would only say on Tuesday evening that the talks will resume after the two week break. D66 leader Alexander Pechtold told reporters: ‘we will work hard on Wednesday and then see what happens next’. According to the NRC, chief negotiator Gerrit Zalm may give a press conference on Wednesday evening to outline the state of play. Talks between the four parties have so far run for three weeks, after the left-wing green party GroenLinks dropped out. 126 days The Netherlands has been without a new coalition since the March 15 general election. The previous administration's ministers will remain in a caretaker role until a new government is formed. With the 2018 spending plans due to be delivered on the third Tuesday in September, ministers are now working on a holding budget to keep the country's finances ticking over until a new coalition has been put together. The longest formation process in modern Dutch parliamentary history was in 1977 when it took 208 days to form the first Van Agt-led government.  More >

The Dutch government has spent almost a fifth more on hiring in workers and consultants in the last two years, claims the AD on Friday. Despite calling for other firms to reduce the amount of flexible working, the paper says, the government has not got its own house in order. It has investigated external hiring by Dutch ministries, provincial bodies, municipal councils and water boards, saying that last year this cost €2.4 bn and 13% of staffing budgets. This was a rise of 19% on the previous year. But ministerial norms are to spend less than 10% of such costs on freelances, flexible workers and consultants. Leading the way was the tax office, which reportedly spent €272 million on outside staff in 2016, followed by the infrastructure and environment and the justice ministries. Mostly, says the AD, the hires related to IT staff. Zakaria Boufangacha, of the FNV union, told the AD that the situation was ‘disappointing and worrying.’  More >

After a two day break, talks to form the next Dutch cabinet began again on Friday. Broadcaster NOS reports that U2 may be playing a role in inspiring resolution between the VVD Liberal party, D66 liberal democrats, CDU Christian democratic party and ChristenUnie. Gert-Jan Segers, leader of the small ChristenUnie, and second-in-command Carola Schouten, apparently used the break to go to a U2 concert in Berlin. When asked if any of the Irish band’s songs had provided inspiration, Segers quipped: ‘We still haven’t found what we’re looking for.’ D66 leader Alexander Pechtold – whose liberal policies in areas such as medical ethics are most at odds with the ChristenUnie’s stance – told the broadcaster that he’d happily sing along….although he had a bit of a cough. Fortunately, neither of them mentioned the U2 hit 'Sunday Bloody Sunday.'  More >