The European Commission wants the Netherlands to take more measures to cope with the cost of the greying population, boost labour market participation and improve the infrastructure, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

The paper is quoting from concept recommendations on all European economies which will be put to the council of ministers’ meeting later this month.
The commission is pleased with the spending cuts announced by the ruling alliance, which will take the deficit to below 3% of gross domestic product, the paper says.
Nevertheless, there is risk of unexpected rises in healthcare and local government costs. In the long term, the Dutch financial situation is seen as ‘high risk’ because the cost of coping with an elderly population is rising here faster than anywhere else, the paper says.