News item | 27-03-2026 | 5:20 PM
The government will allocate a total of €22.9 million extra over the next 3 years to improve the safety of LGBTQ+ people. In addition, an additional €13.4 million is available annually to combat violence against women and an additional €100 million will be spent on basic skills in secondary vocational education. This can be read in the Spring Memorandum published today. In addition to these investments, a number of cuts from the previous cabinet period and the coalition agreement are also being implemented.
With the extra money for the safety of LGBTQ+ people, the government wants, among other things, to promote acceptance among young people, to make mental problems among LGBTQ+ people a topic of discussion and to set up campaigns that combat discrimination and disinformation.
To further tackle violence against women, there will be more focus on prevention nationally. OCW works together with the ministries of J&V, SZW and VWS. The detailed plans will be released later this year.
Language and arithmetic
Recent progress figures show that strengthening the language and arithmetic skills of students who enter secondary vocational education from pre-vocational secondary education is necessary. That is why a total of €100 million extra will be spent from 2027/2028 to 2030/2031 on basic skills in secondary vocational education, to provide students with additional guidance and thus eliminate backlogs.
Archives
In addition, €4.1 million will go to the Central Archives for Special Legal Procedure (CABR) for a temporary facility. Anyone with a research interest, such as relatives of victims, can, under certain conditions, conduct digital research in this war archive at eleven Regional Historical Centers.
To meet the new obligations in the Archives Act and create more training opportunities in the archives sector, an additional €3.8 million will be released in 2026 and an additional €7.3 million annually from 2029. This largely goes to the National Archives to carry out the additional tasks resulting from the new Archives Act.
Price adjustment
Last Budget Day it was announced that cuts would be made to the so-called price adjustment for government-wide issues. The price adjustment is the compensation that the government pays for increased prices due to inflation. How much less price adjustment OCW will receive will be announced next week when the First Supplementary Budget is published.
Subsidies
In addition, less money has been reserved government-wide for various subsidies in the coalition agreement, a total of € 18.9 million less for OCW per year from 2027. The details will be announced next week when the First supplementary budget is published.
Investments
This Spring Memorandum does not yet include the more than €1.5 billion that the government wants to invest in education, research and media. This money is intended, among other things, to reverse various cuts made by the previous government. Before the summer and on Budget Day, it will become clear how the government wants to distribute this money among the plans in the coalition agreement.
