Members of the youth wings of most major Dutch political parties have drawn up their own plan to solve the country’s budget problems which they say will create ‘broad social acceptance’ while creating a strong, healthy economy.

The minority government and alliance partner PVV are currently in negotiations on finding at least €9bn in savings and new money to reduce the budget deficit to below 3%, in line with eurozone rules.
The proposals, drawn up by the youth arms of the Liberal parties VVD and D66, the Christian Democrats and ChristenUnie, will be published later today. GroenLinks was also involved in the negotiations but decided not to sign the final document, the Volkskrant said.
Retire at 69
The young politicians’ plans include a six-monthly increase in the state pension age from next year, taking official retirement age to 69, two years later than the government’s plans.
They also want to limit mortgage tax relief to the lowest tax bracket, reform redundancy law and introduce better protection for temporary staff and freelancers.
The youngsters’ plans do not include reducing the aid budget, the Volkskrant points out. Leaks from the ongoing talks between the three government parties say €1bn is to be sliced from the €4.6bn aid budget.