Controversy about the Maintenance Costs of Beatrix' Sailing Yacht

[Marengo]

As posted by Joris on the Benelux Royals MB:

Dutch RTL News demands by means of legal summary proceedings full clearity on the real expenses made from public funds on HM's yacht De Groene Draeck which they have asked for a long time ago from the Minister of Defense Van Middelkoop, this in connection with of the Dutch Governance Tranparancy Act (Wet openbaarheid van bestuur). There is still an amount of EUR 120,000 unaccounted for in the audit's report of the Ministry of Justice which was published a while ago and about which Parliament was informed wrongly. RTL News is sick and tired of the relucting attitude from the authorities to provide a specific report accounting for all costs. "Citizens have the right to know what happens with public financial means." The Complaints Commission of the Ministry of Defence agreed with RTL News regarding RTL's demands to give further transparancy.

[Jacknch]

It's a lovely sail boat and I agree that it is entirely appropriate for HM Queen Beatrix to use it both for pleasure and on official engagements. I do not believe that the cost of maintaining such a craft would be so high. Here in Britain, we lost the Royal Yacht Britannia because of maintenance costs which were in the millions. It's ashame though because like the Netherlands we are a seafaring nation too.

[Marengo]

Well, HM's boat is hardly on the same level as the life-saving boats of the Britannia, let alone the Britannia itself. It is just a leisure sailing boat, like many others (who are well-off) have in this country. At the moment the discussion is absent, since everybody is waiting for the PM to come with the promissed financial report. But the PM takes his time, presumably because there are difficulties in getting all the departments to show/find out the exact costs etc.