The Netherlands Court of Audit (the independent government watchdog known as the Algemene Rekenkamer) has warned parliament that most ministries lack clear, measurable goals for how they plan to spend the country's projected €517 billion budget in 2027, making effective oversight nearly impossible. In a letter to the House of Representatives issued a week after Budget Day, the court singled out the education ministry's €60 billion budget as having no defined outcomes at all, while also flagging risks that extra billions earmarked for defence and agricultural buyouts may not be spent effectively, and that Dutch contributions to the EU budget may be underestimated by several billion euros. The court further cautioned that planned cuts of €3.4 billion to the civil service have not been properly assessed for their impact on public services, and that infrastructure departments are chronically underfunded even to maintain basic upkeep of roads, bridges, and rail networks.