page_title: First Balkenende cabinet
section_title: Actions
hierarchical_section_title: First Balkenende cabinet / Term / Actions
caption_attribution_description: English: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (right) escorts Netherlands's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaap de Hoop Scheffer into the Pentagon on May 1, 2003. The two men will meet to discuss bilateral security issues of interest to both nations.
context_page_description: The First Balkenende cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 22 July 2002 until 27 May 2003. The cabinet was formed by the political parties Christian Democratic Appeal, Pim Fortuyn List and the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy after the election of 2002. The right-wing cabinet was a majority government in the House of Representatives. It was the first of four cabinets of Jan Peter Balkenende, the Leader of the Christian Democratic Appeal as Prime Minister, with Eduard Bomhoff and Roelf de Boer of the Pim Fortuyn List and Johan Remkes of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy serving as Deputy Prime Ministers.
context_section_description: Revoking a planned ban on mink farming initiated by the previous cabinet.
  Approval of an expansion of the European Union.
  Support for the United States in its plan to invade Iraq.
  Cuts to Ad Melkert's subsidised jobs scheme, the Melkertbanen.
  Removal of price controls on certain popular medical interventions (knee and hip operations, cataract operations) in an effort to reduce waiting lists.
  Reorganisation of defence, including budget cuts and the termination of 4800 jobs.
  Reduction of spending on public transport by 39 million euros.
  Cuts to the budgets of most government departments, countered by increased spending in health and some other areas.
caption: Minister of Foreign Affairs Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz at The Pentagon on 1 May 2003.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "b'                    , ... ]", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2003:05:02 12:40:27", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "568", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1286", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5767", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2003:05:01 14:09:56", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2003:05:01 14:09:56", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "32", "EXIF SubSecTime": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "90", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "90", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2926", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "48", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}