If the queen or one of the others is travelling for "work" then it's ok to have those costs paid by the taxpayer as it's effectively the same as any other government worker who is travelling for work purposes. But why does the cost of security need to be kept a secret if it too is being financed by taxpayers?

P.S. How can buying or running a royal jacht be considered fair game for taxpayers? Surely all the houses are enough to entertain guests and even then I think it's going overboard with that too(no pun intended)

Who actually comes to the Netherlands to see the royalty here? I doubt many actually do. Yet they cost far more than anyother in Europe? Ridiculous...

I think we can safely assume the real reason is embarrassment at the level of the cost, if it was realistically low in these times privacy would not be a problem.

She is one of the richest persons in the world, one of the biggest shareholders in shell, she refused to take less money from the state for her allowance and now this.
just makes it obvious that she has different plans for her money that don't have anything to do with the welfare of the nation or the people.

She is one of the richest persons in the world, one of the biggest shareholders in shell, she refused to take less money from the state for her allowance and now this.
just makes it obvious that she has different plans for her money that don't have anything to do with the welfare of the nation or the people.

Given the Dutch trait for thrift, I would expect the public to demand to know what is being spent. Where is the outrage? Not just for the royals but for all officials who abuse the public purse. They do not mind pointing fingers at us when it comes to expenses!

Just a few days ago she remembered everyone how we should all make sacrifices in these harsh times ,.... well ,perhaps we should start with sacrificing all these costs first,....

Right to privacy has nothing to do with use of public money, unless public money is being used to support private pleasures, and then the public has doubly the right to know what is being spent and for what purposes, and if there are any reimbursements...The public cannot make ongoing decisions on whether to keep the monarchy or end it unless they have information on how responsible the Royal family is acting with public funds....

We the taxpayers pay for everything they have and do.... why should we not know where our money is going?

I don't think that the royal family feels any embarrassment at all concerning this issue. It's their birthright to sponge off the people. It's the MPs who are ashamed of this foolishness because they allow it to continue. 40 million is a lot of euros. Yes, I rounded the amount up.

To date this is still the biggest waste of taxpayer money in NL. I honestly do not understand the royals here at all. They are totally unknown throughout the world, and they do not contribute much to this country (in terms of income or prestige). What is it that they actually do besides cost this country millions of euros! What a waste!

In a world that is becoming increasingly and IMO rightfully more transparent, then tax payers have a right to know what ther tax is spent on, including the Royal Family. Security costs should remain secret, because that could expose the amount of security each royal has. This was done in the UK when it came to light that some lesser royals had no security, IMO putting them at some risk. However,it must be said, some British royals are being a little too transparent recently!!!

Taxpayers have the absolute right to know how their tax money is being spent... no holds bared. Those past disclosures revealed abuse and waste of your tax money by the royals, and now they want censor those disclosures for fear of the growing tide against support for the monarchy. Time for these royals to start paying their own way. No more privileged class and all their cronies.

As a public servant, her expenses incurred in carrying out the duties of office should be a matter of public record. If the expenses are private or "embarrassing" in nature, then they should not be publicly re-reimbursed as they could not possibly be to the public's benefit - it follows then that the public should not have the right to know about their personal private debts that they should have paid themselves.

First question is what is the queen doing at the secret Bilderberg meetings? The whole family is disgusting with there little military uniforms and lack of morals and respect for the dutch people.

I agree that costs for official duties and actions should be reported. However, as their lives are to a degree a part of state (only talking about HM, PvO, wife and children) that many aspects of that life is mixed in with official costs - their privacy is thus a right and it should be not disclosed. What is important, and ignored by some here, is that there is a parliamentary office that audits and reports on the costs - let them do their work. Since the last five years they have cut by almost 70 per cent expenditure to taxpayers.

The Dutch royals should show a little more solidarity with their people, and not be so extravagant in a time of financial crisis.
If they refuse, they risk losing the popular support of millions of taxpayers, who work for a living.